So, just how bad has the salmon situation in Northern California gotten? Well, here’s a little spreadsheet I found stapled to the wall of the Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River near Sacramento.
Take a close look…the numbers to the right of the red line are Chinook salmon counts; to the left of the blue line are the corresponding years in which those fish returned to the river. Beginning in 2000, we had five straight years of 100,000+ kings in the American. And then by 2007-08, the run had dwindled to 10 percent.
I floated an 8-mile stretch of river on Nov. 1 just to see for myself how things were shaping up for the 09-10 fall and I saw a total of two alive kings, 1 dead one and no redds. A trip to the hatchery a few days before revealed a few fish behind the weir, empty holding ponds and no water yet even running down the ladder. This, my friends, is not looking good…
Late October and not a single fish in the hatchery...
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They are opening the fish ladder 11/9. I was there over the weekend with my kids and there are fish stacked, waiting to get in and the stretch of water just before the weir has lots of fish. Here is a link to some video I shot on 11/8/2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8dCerXa00
Cool…glad to see things have improved since I was there. Still a looooong way off from what it should be, though!
They might be back by 2020 just around the corner JD just have patience!:(