Drought-driven salmon deaths could have far-reaching impact

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Drought-driven-salmon-deaths-could-have-6596901.php

Damn it. Thanks for sharing.

Very sad indeed.. makes me want to release every salmon I might catch and eat farmed salmon. There are matters that are out of our hands such as the rainfall, but when our water management policies contribute to the decline of these juvenile salmon.. well that is just unacceptable. Thanks for the post Hojo

The winter run chinook are already an endangered species, which should currently afford them the highest level of protections.  What further "far reaching impacts" could possibly occur?

-Allen

Very sad indeed.. makes me want to release every salmon I might catch and eat farmed salmon.

NO NO NO NO!!! Educate yourself about farmed salmon! Don't buy it! The environmental impacts are huge and extremely detrimental to wild salmon runs.
If you're going to buy salmon, buy wild Alaskan.

Lake Shasta is drained again and the river stayed high all summer. Maybe the delta didn't see much of the water because of diversions.

It's no wonder though. I've came to the conclusion that DFG doesn't give a rat's ass about anything other than revenue at this point. If they did they'd change a lot of regs on the entire Sacramento and San Joaquin drainages to help native fish.

Very sad indeed.. makes me want to release every salmon I might catch and eat farmed salmon.

NO NO NO NO!!! Educate yourself about farmed salmon! Don't buy it! The environmental impacts are huge and extremely detrimental to wild salmon runs.
If you're going to buy salmon, buy wild Alaskan.

Andrew, just found this regarding wild salmon consumption in the U.S.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2015/10/29/wild-salmon-may-not-be-as-wild-as-think/?vgnextrefresh=1&intcmp=hplnws

Winter-run have always intrigued me.  Unlike all the other Central Valley runs, they spawn in the late spring/early summer as opposed to fall/winter.  In addition, they don't fit into the "stream-maturing or ocean-maturing" life history types typically applied to salmon, and are kind of a blend between the two.  Spawning Chinook in June that are stream/ocean maturing run...pretty freakin' cool and unique!

The construction of Shasta Dam blocked off practically all the original winter-run Chinook spawning and rearing habitat, and left them with only the mainstem Sac below the dam as their only viable alternative.  The future has looked bleak for this run for years, and the current drought may very well be the final nail in the coffin.  Livingstone Stone hatchery might prolong the run's existence for a while, but the run would exist in name only.  When your entire run's existence is entirely dependent on coldwater releases from a human-operated dam, how long can one expect it to last?

CV spring-run are likely the next candidate headed for the gutter.  The most robust run left is in Butte Creek, and the only reason that it exists is because we (or PG&E) ship water from the West Branch Feather through penstocks and dump it into Butte to maintain low water temperatures.  And even still, the adults continually hit thermal barriers as they migrate up Butte and die by the hundreds every year.  Butte is at too low of an elevation to sustain the number of fish it receives on its own.  The other spring-run streams support modest populations, but when I say "modest", I mean 100-200 adult returnees a year.  Hardly robust pops.

So the spawning grounds are getting toasted, and that's not even taking into account all the other obstacles these fish have to traverse in the lower watershed.  All daunting tasks for regulatory agencies to tackle, and the ones that they have some sort of control over are usually met with heated opposition.  De-regulation of striped bass was one of the low-hanging fruit, and we all saw how that one turned out.

A sad but not a surprising read. These past three years have been brutal on anadromous CA salmonids. I feel like we will be the last generation to experience any of these amazing fish in this state without some very real and far reaching water policy changes.

The "wild salmon" in CA feel like they are wild in name only. With the amount of intervention by government agencies and hatcheries necessary to keep them at harvestable (and crashing) numbers it feels disingenuous.

Winter-run have always intrigued me.  Unlike all the other Central Valley runs, they spawn in the late spring/early summer as opposed to fall/winter.  In addition, they don't fit into the "stream-maturing or ocean-maturing" life history types typically applied to salmon, and are kind of a blend between the two.  Spawning Chinook in June that are stream/ocean maturing run...pretty freakin' cool and unique!

The construction of Shasta Dam blocked off practically all the original winter-run Chinook spawning and rearing habitat, and left them with only the mainstem Sac below the dam as their only viable alternative.  The future has looked bleak for this run for years, and the current drought may very well be the final nail in the coffin.  Livingstone Stone hatchery might prolong the run's existence for a while, but the run would exist in name only.  When your entire run's existence is entirely dependent on coldwater releases from a human-operated dam, how long can one expect it to last?

CV spring-run are likely the next candidate headed for the gutter.  The most robust run left is in Butte Creek, and the only reason that it exists is because we (or PG&E) ship water from the West Branch Feather through penstocks and dump it into Butte to maintain low water temperatures.  And even still, the adults continually hit thermal barriers as they migrate up Butte and die by the hundreds every year.  Butte is at too low of an elevation to sustain the number of fish it receives on its own.  The other spring-run streams support modest populations, but when I say "modest", I mean 100-200 adult returnees a year.  Hardly robust pops.

So the spawning grounds are getting toasted, and that's not even taking into account all the other obstacles these fish have to traverse in the lower watershed.  All daunting tasks for regulatory agencies to tackle, and the ones that they have some sort of control over are usually met with heated opposition.  De-regulation of striped bass was one of the low-hanging fruit, and we all saw how that one turned out.

Didn't realize this until I saw the local news, many of the salmon that made it back to Butte Creek ended up as bear food because of low water

http://www.actionnewsnow.com/player/?video_id=10454

Very sad indeed.. makes me want to release every salmon I might catch and eat farmed salmon.

NO NO NO NO!!! Educate yourself about farmed salmon! Don't buy it! The environmental impacts are huge and extremely detrimental to wild salmon runs.
If you're going to buy salmon, buy wild Alaskan.

Andrew, just found this regarding wild salmon consumption in the U.S.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2015/10/29/wild-salmon-may-not-be-as-wild-as-think/?vgnextrefresh=1&intcmp=hplnws

Yeah, the false labeling of seafood in the US is appalling. I usually buy Alaskan canned pink and sockeye salmon or fresh coho when it's on sale at Andronico's. If the head is there you can identify the species. I'm guess most false labeling happens in restaurants where it's easiest to lie to consumers who don't know any better and when the heads and other identifying features are gone.

One of my favorite false labelings is "local snapper" in San Francisco markets. And what's disturbing is that most restaurant or market owners wouldn't understand the problem with that term.