Wednesday March 19, 2025
The Oaklandside —
Back in November, the fish-loving community was chuffed to the gills after several dead Chinook salmon carcasses floated to the shores of Lake Merritt. This was an exciting development: Lake Merritt is part of the Chinook salmon’s natural habitat, including potential spawning grounds in creeks, but pollution, harmful algal blooms, and physical barriers have made it harder and harder for the fish to reach those grounds and thrive there. Did the presence of salmon mean something had improved?
Chinook salmon populations have declined over the last century in most estuaries and rivers they used to frequent.
Their presence in the lake signals a healthier environment for many types of marine species. Now, thanks to community scientists, we know where some of the fish recently recovered from the lake came from.
Katie Noonan, founder of Rotary Nature Center Friends, a local stewardship organization that received a permit from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to conduct scientific work at Lake Merritt, said the group had found wire tags in some of the fish recently pulled from the lagoon. From the approximately 30 carcasses they removed, four were tagged.