From Denis Peirce of The Union:
The most reliable count for salmon in our valley rivers is the fish ladder at Red Bluff. During the irrigation season the gates of the Red Bluff Diversion dam are lowered to divert water into farm irrigation system. In most years, this lasts from May 15 to Sept. 15.
This past weekend, the gates were raised and the fish counting ended for the year. The bad news: The final count came in at 6,882 for 2007. This compares to 8,595 for 2006. The 2006 numbers were poor and 2007 is lower yet.
Those numbers don’t exactly inspire confidence, if you catch my drift. The rest of his article is largely a fishing report, but you can read it here: Denis Peirce: Where are the salmon? – TheUnion.com
[tags]salmon, sacramento river salmon counts, salmon recovery[/tags]
What’s the problem? Is it bad reproduction or predators?
Alex(Quote)
We’re having similar concerns down here on the American, though they still have a few weeks till they generally show. I’m told that warm water temps at the Golden Gate are driving them to the Klamath and such, but that doesn’t add up in my limited understanding of salmon. I was always under the impression that they return to their home river, no matter what.
Kevin(Quote)
Perhaps someone will offer an informed opinion, but until then, I’m substituting a blind emotional response.
I don’t think warm water is diverting fish (it might hold them for a short time). I think we’re seeing the double whammy of spawning habitat loss and a weak ocean food chain — something Mark at Blogfish has commented on extensively.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
I am a long-time, avid salmon fisherman on the Old River. I fish out of Vieira’s, driving down from Twain Harte. We have noticed the difficulty in catching salmon for about four years…and I believe a multitude of factors are at work, not just one. Spawning ground gravel areas are degraded, factory ships at sea take the entire food chain, spawning rivers are full of barges, huge container ships, oil and pollutants, giant pumps gobble up fry trying to return to ocean are leading causes of demise. I would appreciate comments on these two thoughts: 1.are years of relative drought detrimental to salmon counts? 2.Comment on the fish counts at Red Bluff…I note peak counts around 9-11, but counting STOPS on 9-15, so we DON’T know what happens after that! We are flying blind as to runs after September 15….take a look at the graphs on salmon runs Sacramento River (google).
This year, with pathetic catches, as was 06, people are saying, “They are late this year”…but I ask, “Are they late, or have they already gone by in August and September..and in smaller numbers.”
Funny thing…natives of the Delta, really good fishermen and resort owners ALL are flying blind and have “theories” but it seems that no one has FACTS. Comment please. John Baldwin Twain Harte
Dr. John Baldwin(Quote)
Dr. John; I can’t answer your questions except to direct you to my prior comment. I think runs are down because the oceans are in trouble and for the reasons you mentioned.
In other words, we’re all looking for one specific factor to “fix” but the truth is we’re probably looking at a whole raft of reasons why the salmon returns are so damned low.
Still, that’s no reason to ignore the things we can fix (spawning habitat, modifying flows to favor salmon, eliminating barriers to migration (especially those that encourage predation), etc.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
II am from a family with lots of experience with salmon in the Freeport area. I also grew up in the Fresno area, where the mighty San Joaquin River is but a shadow of its once great fishery. When I moved to Sacramento in the early 80′s I was surprised that the northern end of the deltas supply still had a healthy supply of salmon. I was dismayed though at the abuses I witnessed. Heck, I quit fishing for Catfish in the sac river because of the growths and weird skin conditions I attributed to pollutions and farming chemicals that were abundant in this river. During those early years the salmon were abundant, the fishermen would take a days limit and go back and do it again the next day. Often the “in possession†limit was over looked… lots of fish were out there to be had… however each year it was just a tad harder to be rewarded with the days take. Three seasons ago, we fished hard for two weeks and took one or two fish, last season we didn’t even try. All the reports seemed to be that unbelievable larger numbers of fish outside of the golden gate, but they never got here. This year, the count at the golden gate seems way low so with all of the years of abuse should we be surprised that the salmon are scarce? No, I just hope that we have not pushed them to the brink of destruction. Remember as a boy I never saw salmon in the Fresno areas San Joaquin River. I am afraid that my grand children will say the same about the salmon in the Sacramento… Shamefully I think we all are to blame, farmers, industry, fishermen, cities, and more…
Ed Peuker(Quote)
I do not believe this
fornetti(Quote)
I recently had a conversation with a state fisheries employee. The employee indicated that due to Federal interventions they are not allowed to return the Fry to the river system at the full capacity of our Salmon farms. I understood that the problems is that the federal level regulators have a sameness of mind and purpose that imposes an asinine blockade due to concerns that the farm raised salmon fry create a pressure upon the natural run… I wonder as I type this if the federal fisheries people have any idea that once a river is blocked the natural run is gone? I was told that after 4000 fry are released from the American river hatchery, additional releases are prohibited by the Federal Fisheries. If I understood correctly, remaining fry are to be destroyed by the mandate of the federal fisheries management. In light of the shortage of returning salmon in the last few years, I think we need to be alarmed at this practice. It seems counter productive not to release all of the available fry every year. The person I spoke with is familiar with the entire system of the Sacramento River but works closely with the nimbus hatchery. The person indicated to me that the fry returned to the river are a small percentage of the raised fry. Is it just me that can’t make sense of not releasing all of the available fry?
Ed Peuker(Quote)
Ed: Thanks for posting.
Not having been privy to your conversation, I can’t speak to the specifics of a lot of what you’re saying.
I can say that it’s now a widely accepted theory/fact/whatever among biologists that excessive hatchery stocks can and will weaken the runs of native fish, actually hastening their demise instead of mitigating it.
Several recent studies have have shown that hatchery salmon and (I believe) steelhead) are far less likely to survive once released, and even if they do, their reproductive capacity is nowhere near that of wild fish. (Sorry, no time to hunt up the links right now.)
Unfortunately, hatchery fish survive in a far different environment than those born in the wild – and hatchery environments reward those fish traits that aren’t rewarded in the wild.
Natural selection then has its say, and…
The problem isn’t that we’re not releasing hatchery fish; it’s that we’re mucking up the wild runs so badly.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
In B.C., Canada the biologists and anglers all thought it was a good idea to promote ‘wild fish’ only steelhead and salmon enhancement programs but the Federal Government withdrew funding and left the enhancements to be run by fishing clubs, etc. One famous BC steelhead River (Thompson) which is well known to Americans and flows into the Fraser River at Lytton, BC , with most of the steelhead angling done in the “Spences Bridge” area. This river has lost its status as a world class steelhead river with fish averaging 15 lb. and up to 25 lb. fish . They tried to limit fishing to catch and release only and even with years of those regulations, the steelhead numbers continued to plummet. The blame ? Poor ocean conditions, incidental steelhead catches by commecial sockeye salmon fisherman, unregulated native fishing, high water temperatures, poor spawing and rearing habitats. In retrospect I think the Province of BC should have adopted a hatchery program and not worry about the ‘dilution’ of wild fish species — because we barely have any wild species left anyway !!! By the way, I’m speaking about a River systems with no dams on them at all –?
Roger(Quote)