Friday December 9, 2022
Northern California Public Media —
Last winter residents around the North Bay were wowed by video of salmon swimming through neighborhood creeks and small tributaries in Marin County on their way to spawn. Eric Ettlinger, a fisheries expert with Marin Water, said the previous spawning season was hugely successful for Marin’s salmon.
“In this summer, we had a record breaking number of juvenile salmon,” Ettlinger said. “In fact, it was along the lines of three times the previous record of fish. So there were just juvenile salmon everywhere we looked.”
That’s despite the massive barriers Ettlinger said face those fish.
“So the fish in this area have lost about 50% of their habitat because they can’t get past the dams that we have here,” Ettlinger said. “And the 50% of the habitat that they have left has been degraded by past logging and housing development.”
He said Marin Water has a strong focus on restoration and protection efforts for the salmon.