Spring-Run Chinook Found In San Joaquin River
— Kate Poole (@KatePooleNRDC) April 24, 2019
The San Joaquin River Restoration Project published a report about a return to the famed Central Valley river for spring-run king salmon. after a seven-decade absence. Here’s a little bit on the findings:
For the first time in over 65 years, threatened Central Valley spring-run Chinook adult salmon have completed their life cycle and returned to the Restoration Area. While spring-run have been placed as adults in the river previously, this is the first time Program fish have migrated out of the system as juveniles and returned as adults years later.
So far, five returning adult spring-run Chinook have been trapped in Fyke nets in the lower Restoration Area. The fish were able to outmaneuver predators and avoid the perils of modern water infrastructure before making their way nearly 370 miles out to the Pacific Ocean to mature for 2-5 years before returning to the San Joaquin River. …
…While at one time spring-run Chinook salmon were the dominant run of salmon in the San Joaquin River and the southernmost population of Chinook in California, the completion of Friant Dam in 1942 cut-off the historic spawning habitat for spring-run and the species extirpated from the system.
That’s really promising news for salmon.
