[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 12/18/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

December 18, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

Fewer salmon seen: Up to 25,000 chinook return to Anderson hatchery

Redding Record Searchlight – 12/18/07

By Dylan Darling, staff writer

 

Jeremy Notch's arms aren't as tired as they usually are this time of year.

 

A field technician with the state Department of Fish and Game, Notch spends late fall spearing carcasses of spawned out salmon in the Sacramento River near Redding. This year, there have been fewer for him to spear than normal.

"Compared to last year, it's pretty bad," he said.

 

The low carcass count is just one of many signs that this year's fall run of chinook salmon on the Sacramento has been down, said Doug Killam, associate fisheries biologist in DFG's Red Bluff office.

 

Another is low returns at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek near Anderson, he said.

 

About 20,000 to 25,000 fall-run chinook made it into Battle Creek this year after their several-year trek to the ocean and back, said Scott Hamelberg, Coleman's manager.

 

The largest return on record was 400,000 in 2002. In 2005, there were 150,000 salmon and last year 75,000 returned to Battle Creek.

 

Despite the huge drop, there were more than enough for the hatchery to meet its spawning goals, he said. The hatchery brought in 10,000 chinook this fall and will be able to release about 12 million tiny salmon fry in April.

 

Of those salmon, Hamelberg said, biologists expect one in a hundred to make it back in three years.

 

"They face a lot of dangers out there," he said.

 

It's those dangers out in the ocean that could be the cause of this year's drop, said Killam, Hamelberg and Peter Adams, fisheries investigations chief in the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Santa Cruz.

 

"Obviously something is going on in the ocean, but we don't know what," he said.

 

Possible problems include higher water temperatures and food supplies at sea.

 

Adams said this year's commercial and recreational salmon hauls off the state's coast have been low, with the recreational catch one of the lowest ever.

 

Back on the river, it's also been a slow year for recreational salmon fishing, Killam said.

 

He said many fishing guides this year weren't able to double book -- which means having a customer set to go out in the morning and another in the afternoon, each allowed to catch two salmon -- because it's been hard to catch the limit this year.

 

"Last year, it was easy for guides to catch the limit," he said.

 

A guide for 10 years on the Sacramento, J.D. Richey, owner of J.D. Richey Sportfishing in Sacramento, said he has seen good and bad years on the river. This year has been bad, real bad.

 

"It's been the worst year I've ever seen," he said. #

http://www.redding.com/news/2007/dec/18/fewer-salmon-seen/

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