Tuesday May 19, 2026
edhat —
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has begun tagging Chinook salmon ahead of the fall spawning season.
The CDFW, in partnership with staff from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), has started tagging spring-run Chinook salmon at the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, the agency announced in a social media post.
The tagging enables wildlife officials to identify early-arriving spring-run Chinook salmon from those that arrive later in the fall during spawning operations.
The Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon was listed as a threatened species under both the state and federal endangered species acts in 1999.
Born in freshwater, Chinook salmon are anadromous, which means that they spend most of their life at sea, returning to freshwater to spawn.
The CDFW typically uses Hallprint, a spaghetti-style fish tag, to visually identify spring-run Chinook salmon. The fish are outfitted with two external Hallprint tags on either side of the dorsal fin and are then released back into the river.