FISHING Fall-run Chinook swim upstream in Battle Creek at the entrance of Coleman National Fish Hatchery near Redding. The eggs and milt from these fish were used to produce a release of 2 million juvenile fish to help increase the struggling salmon population. (DENNIS WHITAKER/GOLDEN STATE SALMON ASSOCIATION)
SALMON RELEASE COULD BOOST STRUGGLING NUMBERS STATE, FEDERAL AGENCIES TEAM UP TO SEND 2 MILLION KINGS INTO UPPER SAC RIVER By U.S. Fish and Wildife Service
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he Coleman National Fish Hatchery, funded by the Bureau of Reclamation, hatched an additional 2 million juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon this past October, successfully releasing 600,000 fish this last month, with the remainder scheduled to be released the first week of January. The Golden State Salmon
Association proposed the project to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA fisheries last spring. “This project will allow us to study the potential of generating additional adult returns to spawn naturally in the Sacramento River by releasing fry,” said Paul Souza, regional director for USFWS’s California Great Basin Region. “We’re excited to provide these additional salmon to increase recreational opportunities
for fishermen and -women here in California.” The fish are and will be released into the upper Sacramento River as fry, with the hope they will imprint as they rear and then return to spawn in the upper Sacramento as adults. There has been a steady decline in natural spawning in the upper Sacramento River over the past decade. This study is an attempt to determine if hatcheryproduced fish can be used to increase
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