Emergency efforts made to protect declining Chinook salmon populations in Sacramento River
SACRAMENTO — California's Chinook salmon are considered threatened under the Endangered Species Act and their population numbers continue to dangerously decline.
New emergency efforts are being taken to protect the dwindling number of salmon coming up the Sacramento River.
"This is a life-saving measure for a species," said Scott Artis of the Golden State Salmon Association.
These biologists are collecting juvenile Chinook salmon along several north state creeks to help keep them from going extinct.
"There aren't that many numbers and they just are not what they used to be decades ago," said Cathy Marcinkevage with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In good years, there would be several thousand fish in these creeks.
"This year the numbers are orders of magnitude lower, reports of 20 fish in one of those streams, 7 adults in the other," Marcinkevage said.
A couple hundred have been captured and are now being kept inside water tanks at a UC Davis aquatic research facility.
"They'll be a foster home in a sense for these juvenile fish," Marcinkevage said.
Scientists say one of the biggest reasons for the struggling salmon population is several years of drought.
"What we're seeing this year is impacted by what happened three years ago," Marcinkevage said.
"This is a current situation that could have been avoided," Artis said.
Artis also blames federal and state officials for diverting too much water from the river for agricultural use.
"Most of this disaster can really be laid at the feet of water managers," Artis said.
He wants to strengthen river flow and temperature requirements that help protect migrating salmon.
"We're going to continue to lose salmon if we don't make those changes," Artis said.
Scientists hope to use the fish currently held in captivity to preserve their genetic diversity and breed baby salmon, which will then be released back into the wild to help save the species.
"It's not ideally the way we want to do things, but it's a bit of a safeguard," Marcinkevage said.
Money for this rescue effort comes from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's drought funding.