Monday May 15, 2023
SF Gate —
Bay Area biologists remain uncertain about the status of the region’s endangered and threatened salmon species after challenges posed by the recent onslaught of winter rainstorms inhibited their research and may have prevented some of the fish from successfully breeding and laying eggs.
Marin Municipal Water District ecologist Eric Ettlinger told the Marin Independent Journal the historic storms have not only prevented surveyors from monitoring the numbers of coho and Chinook salmon for several weeks but also apparently damaged a number of their spawning beds, which are referred to as redds, in Marin County, home to the largest population of coho salmon from Monterey Bay to the Noyo River in Mendocino County.
“Unfortunately, we know of some redds that definitely were destroyed and we suspect that others were destroyed and the eggs washed away,” Ettlinger told the Marin Independent Journal.