California releases hatchery-raised salmon in Klamath River

As work crews continued dismantling dams on the Klamath River, leaders from four tribes gathered on the river’s banks last week to watch and pray as a water truck’s floodgate opened . From a chute, a stream of water filled with wriggling fish flowed into the river.

Over two days, California Department of Fish and Wildlife workers released 16 truckloads of juvenile salmon raised in a newly constructed hatchery. About 500,000 salmon swam downstream, and tribal leaders said they expect those fish to thrive when they migrate upstream in a few years to spawn in a free-flowing river.

“They are a symbol of hope,” said Yurok Tribal Council member Phillip Williams.

Williams said as he watched the fish disappear in the river, he thought about how he and many other tribal members could catch some of those salmon when they returned in three or four years.

“They’re going to feed families,” Williams said. “So it was really, really emotional.”

The young fish were raised at the Fall Creek Hatchery and included approximately 90,000 coho salmon, an endangered species, as well as more than 400,000 fall-run Chinook salmon.

The last time state officials released Chinook salmon in February, they released more than 800,000 fish into a tributary upstream of Iron Gate Dam, which is expected to be removed, and the fish were then found dead in the river. Biologists determined the salmon died while passing through a tunnel under the dam.

To prevent this from happening again, state officials chose another location just downstream of Iron Gate Dam.

On April 16, coho salmon were released into the Klamath River in Siskiyou County.

(Matt Mais / Yurok Tribe)

They also conducted a test in advance, placing groups of young salmon in the river in 2-foot-long plastic cylinders, called “living cars,” to ensure the water quality was adequate for fish survive their journey to the ocean. This two-day test confirmed that the fish remained healthy in the river.

This time, state officials declared the release a complete success.

Karuk Tribe Vice Chairman Kenneth Brink sang as the fish-filled stream of water gushed down the river in sight of the dam. Others offered prayers.

“This river is our church, and this salmon is the cross of this church,” Brink said.

“It will be a very, very, very healing experience to be able to see the salmon return, to see our religion return and to be able to live like the Karuk people,” he said in a video recorded after the release. . “It’s like a new beginning.”

Leaders from the Shasta Indian Nation and the Quartz Valley Indian Tribe also watched the salmon head downstream.

It was the first significant release of coho salmon in the Klamath since the removal of four dams began last year.

Water now flows through tunnels at the three remaining dams near the California-Oregon border, as well as through reservoirs that once submerged the valleys. were emptied.

Work crews dynamited and destroyed a concrete dam. This fall, the dams are expected to be completely removed, restoring a free-flowing stretch of river for the first time in more than a century. Once the dams are destroyed, salmon will be able to swim upstream and spawn along approximately 400 miles of the Klamath and its tributaries.

Some of the released fish are expected to return in a few years as adults at Fall Creek Fish Hatchery, a $35 million facility that was built as part of the dam removal agreements between California, Oregon and the service public PacifiCorp, which operated the dams. .

People gathered on the banks of the Klamath River April 16 to watch the release of hatchery-raised salmon downstream from Iron Gate Dam, which is scheduled to be removed this year.

(Jason Hartwick/Swiftwater Films)

Some fish are also expected to be among the first to spawn in the wild along stretches of river previously closed by dams.

“These fish will be the ones that help the population that comes back,” said Charlton “Chuck” Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Emptying the tanks this winter sent muddy, sediment-laden water circulating downstream. The abrupt deterioration in water quality caused a drop in the amount of oxygen in the water, killing fish including non-native perch, bluegills and bass introduced into the reservoirs.

State testing has shown that river conditions have improved and are now suitable for salmon development, Bonham said. “Outings over the last few days show the river is good and will only get better.”

Later in the spring, state hatchery managers plan to release nearly 2 million Chinook smolts into the river.

Scientists expect the $500 million dam removal project, the largest in history, to help increase salmon populations in the years to come.

Salmon populations have declined in recent years and the Chinook salmon fishery has been banned along the California coast this year for the second year in a row.

Leaders of the Yurok and Karuk tribes plan to decide soon how much, if any, fishing they will allow this year.