Salmon Returns Down At Coleman, Up at Other Central Valley Hatcheries

[depakid]

Photo of giant post-spawned Chinook salmon on Battle Creek in fall 2008 by Doug Killam, DFG Associate Fisheries Biologist. “I have counted tens of thousands of salmon during my career and this is the biggest I have ever seen,” said Killam. “When alive, it could have weighed more than the largest Chinook officially recorded in California, an 88-pound fish caught in the Sacramento River.”
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In the coming weeks, biologists will be compiling the statistics on the 2009 fall-run Chinook salmon returns on Central Valley rivers as the state and federal fishery agencies prepare to develop the fishing regulations for the 2010 salmon season. Based on preliminary estimates, Sacramento River Chinook salmon counts for the fall of 2009 are down and could be headed to another all time low, according to Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish.

The numbers of fish that returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery, the Central Valley’s largest salmon producer, were down considerably from even last year’s dismal run, while salmon numbers were up from 2008 at the Nimbus, Feather River and Mokelumne River fish hatcheries. The complete numbers of salmon that spawned naturally in the rivers, based on carcass surveys, are not available yet.

“State water mismanagement continues to spiral the populations downward,” said Pool. “It is clear that the over pumping of water from the California Delta and the failure to protect fish in the state’s water policies are to blame. A 2010 salmon fishing season is in question again.”

In 2008, a record low of only 66,000 fall-run salmon returned to the Sacramento, American, Feather and Yuba rivers and their tributaries. The minimum escapement for long term sustainability of these fish is 122,000 and the fall 2009 run could be as low as 60,000 fish, Pool said. The salmon fishing season was closed in ocean waters off California and most of Oregon in 2008, due to the collapse of Central Valley fall salmon. In 2009, the season was again closed off California and southern Oregon, with the exception of a 10 day season off the North Coast in late August and early September.

Salmon fishing in all Central Valley rivers was also closed both years, with the exception of a selective fishery for late fall run Chinook salmon for 2 months in 2008 and 6 weeks in 2009 in the Sacramento River from Red Bluff to Knights Landing. The closures have led to the loss of 23,000 jobs in coastal communities and the Central Valley, according to economic data from the American Sportfishing Association.

Only 8,300 Chinooks returned this fall to Battle Creek, a major tributary of the Sacramento River, in contrast to about 14,000 last year, according to Coleman National Fish Hatchery manager Scott Hamelburg. The hatchery, located on the creek, received 5500 adults and 700 jacks (two-year-old salmon) in the fall of 2009, compared to 10,000 fish, a total of jacks and adults, in 2008.

“Our annual production target is 12,000,000 fish, but this year we will be a tad short with about 11,300,000 fish – if everything goes right for the rest of the rearing season,” said Hamelburg. “We originally estimated our release numbers would only be 10,00000 smolts, but we definitely saw more eggs per fish this year.”

The return of salmon to Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River is better than last fall although there were considerably more males than females in 2009. The hatchery received 4064 adult Chinooks and 631 jacks and jills in 2009, compared to 2836 adults and 348 jacks in 2008.

“We trapped just under 1600 males and 1300 females last season and 3,000 males and 1100 females this season,” said Bob Burks, Nimbus Fish Hatchery manager. “We probably have a few less eggs than last season, but the fertility of the eggs we have taken is really good and I expect to see no problem reaching our production goal of 4,000,000 Chinook smolts.”

More: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/01/26/salmon-returns-down-at-coleman-up-at-other-central-valley-hatcheries/

[XemaSab]

1. Always good times at Coleman

I was there last month. :D

[depakid]

2. This looks like a really positive development

and with the rains and really fine snowpack, it seems it couldn't have happened at a better time. Then again, I'm not really sure how too much rain, too quickly might affect native spawning grounds due to turbidity and such.

Siskiyou and Shasta counties have surely gotten walloped this year- though it's been overshadowed by the usual dramas in the cities. A bit of a pain for those folks over in McCloud and Shasta city but much needed.

[XemaSab]

3. The real issue is that the dams need to come down

Either that or we need to get serious about riparian restoration.

[hatrack]

4. Speaking of which, whatever happened with the Matilija Dam removal?

I know the Rogue dams are already falling, and the Klamath dams are on tap, but Matilija silted up, gosh, was it decades ago?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

5. Looks like they're trying to figure out what to do with the silt

:shrug: