Tag: chinook

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Habitats, Water, WildlifeTags , , , , , ,

New multispecies plan provides roadmap to salmon and steelhead recovery

October 13, 2016, NOAA FISHERIES
NOAA Recovery Plan for Chinook and Steelhead
Millions of wild salmon and steelhead once returned to California’s north and central coastal watersheds. Development over the last 100 years and the conversion of forestlands to urban and agricultural use led to the decline of these populations. From 1997 to 2000, California Coastal Chinook salmon, Northern California steelhead, and Central California Coast steelhead were listed under the federal Endangered Species Act as species threatened with extinction.

chinook-in-eel-r_cathy-myers
Chinook salmon in the Eel River. Photo: Cathy Myers

Today, NOAA Fisheries released its final plan to recover these species by addressing the threats they face and restoring the ecosystem on which they depend. The recovery plan strategically targets restoration efforts to the needs of salmon and steelhead throughout each of their life stages, from their time as juveniles in freshwater habitat, through their maturation in the ocean, and their return to streams to spawn. Using this framework, the plan seeks to improve estuarine and riparian habitat conditions, restore floodplains and stream channels, enhance stream flows and improve fish passage across 8 million acres of California’s north and central coast.
With science at its foundation, the plan provides for the biological needs of fish. A technical team of scientists, led by NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, developed criteria that will ensure the species persists over the long-term. The criteria address such attributes as population size and reproductive success rates, as well as sufficient geographic distribution and genetic diversity. The idea is to target on-the-ground actions to the needs of fish throughout their life cycle to restore robust populations across the landscape.
Read more at: New multispecies plan provides roadmap to salmon and steelhead recovery :: NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Water, WildlifeTags , , , , , ,

California drought puts Chinook salmon in danger of extinction

Ellen Knickmeyer, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Another deadly summer of drought has heightened fears of extinction in the wild for an iconic California salmon, federal officials said Wednesday.
Officials with the National Marine Fisheries Service said preliminary counts indicate that hot, shallow waters caused by the drought killed most of this year’s juvenile winter-run Chinook before they made it out to the Pacific Ocean.
It “doesn’t look very good,” said Garwin Yip, a federal fisheries spokesman.If a final count this winter confirms the bad news, it would mean a second straight summer in which 5 percent or less of the young fish survived California’s drought.
Since the fish spawn on a three-year cycle, the die-off would make management of next year’s water critical for the salmon’s survival in the wild.
The development suggests failure for a second year in a row for federal efforts to manage water flows from Lake Shasta, a main reservoir in the state’s water system, to keep salmon and other species alive.
“Droughts are always hard on salmon, but water management decisions made it worse this year,” said John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association.
The juvenile salmon depend on water temperatures in the mid-50s, and were unable to survive in the warmer temperatures produced by shallower than usual water.
Chinook salmon are a mainstay of the state’s commercial fishing industry. California’s fishing industry and environmental groups are vying with the state’s farmers for diminishing water supplies in the driest four years on record.
Source: California drought puts Chinook salmon in danger of | The Press Democrat

Author SuzannePosted on Categories Sonoma Coast, WildlifeTags , , , , Leave a comment on More days for commercial salmon fishing, but drought cycle looms

More days for commercial salmon fishing, but drought cycle looms

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The North Coast fishing fleet got its first glimpse this week of rules guiding the commercial salmon season set to start May 1, including more days on the water this year than last, reflecting a hopeful outlook for the catch this year despite grim a cycle set in motion by the statewide drought.
The schedule set for the Fort Bragg region, in particular, is far more generous this year, with the season opening a month earlier than in 2014 and dates that allow seven additional days of fishing split between June and July.
Only one fishing day has been added for the coastal waters that include the Sonoma Coast and Bodega Bay, home port to 40 or 50 fishing vessels.
“This year we kind of bet that there’s going to be a northern shift (in the salmon stocks) because of ocean conditions,” said McKinleyville fisherman Dave Bitts, a member of the salmon advisory subcommittee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees coastal fisheries off California, Oregon and Washington.
The season outlines were predicted by a relatively optimistic forecast released in February for the Sacramento River fall run of chinook salmon, which largely determines the North Coast harvest. Analysts predict about 652,000 adult chinook are waiting off the coast this year, about 18 percent more than are believed to have been in the ocean a year ago.
Any satisfaction with the current forecast, however, is somewhat overshadowed by concerns about the future, when adult salmon populations will more fully reveal the impact of three years of drought on spawning and offspring survival.
“This might be the last full season for four years,” longtime Bodega Bay fisherman Chris Lawson said. “We never do see what we call a traditional full season anymore, but this might be the most allotted time for we don’t know when. I can’t even say four years. I won’t know until it starts raining and fish populations come back.”
Read more via Hopeful year for North Coast salmon fleet, but | The Press Democrat.