Salmon surge: Habitat improvements paying off on one California river

A chinook, also called king salmon, attempts to jump up the fish ladder to the hatchery on the Mokelumne River in the Sierra foothills, where fisheries biologists say improved habitat in recent years has paid off. Photo: Mason Trinca / Special to The Chronicle 2017

Near record numbers of chinook salmon are surging up the Mokelumne River, marking the second large spawning year in a row and signaling to fisheries biologists that habitat improvements in recent years are paying off for fish and the people who eat the pinkish delicacies.

The Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery, a Sierra foothills plant that is part of California’s sprawling Central Valley river system, has processed 13,695 salmon so far this year, a number that by the end of the year could come close to last year’s record of 19,954 returning fish.

It is expected to be the best two-year run on the river since records started being kept in 1940, a significant accomplishment given how dismal salmon returns have been over the past three years in virtually every other waterway in California, including the Sacramento River, which last year saw its lowest returns in eight years.

The incursion in the Mokelumne is […]

Full article: Salmon surge: Habitat improvements paying off on one California river

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