Wednesday December 7, 2022
Stockton Record —
A record low number of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon fry migrated downriver from Redding to Red Bluff on the Sacramento River this year, according to preliminary data collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at Red Bluff Diversion Dam.
An estimated 158,764 fry (baby salmon) have made it from below Keswick Dam to Red Bluff this drought year, compared to an average number of 1.3 million winter Chinook salmon. This is the second consecutive year that the service reported alarmingly low numbers of Chinooks.
Last year, an estimated 557,652 winter Chinook made it downriver to Red Bluff, a year when low, warm water, spurred by water diversions to irrigators, caused massive mortality in the fry.
These numbers contrast with 2020, when 2.08 million fish made it to Red Bluff and 2019 when 3.67 million made it to the dam site.