SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — State officials confirmed dire predictions of catastrophic fish kills due to sizzling water temperatures in California’s largest river, announcing Thursday that just 2% of winter-run Chinook juvenile salmon likely survived the summer.
The alarming percentage of juvenile salmon killed on the Sacramento River surpasses the scope of die-offs recorded in the state’s recent drought years and has officials sounding the alarm about the potential permanent collapse of the endangered species.
“The current drought situation is likely to produce very bad returns of fish 3-4 years from now and if we keep having these incredibly bad years, we will not dig out of our population decline,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’ve got to accept that reality.”
As in previous drought years like 2014 and 2015, the federal government and state have been unable to keep water temperatures cool enough to sustain both eggs and juvenile salmon at several important rivers and streams. The lack of rain, record-breaking heat and deliveries of subsidized water to contractors during the drought have created a perilous situation for fish and wildlife.
According to data presented during a state Senate fisheries committee hearing Thursday, an estimated 75% of winter-run Chinook eggs essentially cooked this summer on the upper Sacramento River. Worse, experts believe nearly all the remaining salmon that did hatch soon died from a combination of low river flows and natural or human-caused mortality.
“It appears that only 1-2% of these endangered baby salmon survived just the first few months of their lives,” testified Doug Obegi, water division director at Natural Resources Defense Council.
For comparison, an estimated 3% of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook juveniles survived in 2014 and just 5% in 2015, both of which were also extreme drought years.
The lack of salmon able to return to spawn and replenish the population will again have significant impacts on the state’s commercial fishing industry down the road.
To account for the disastrous summer on the Sacramento and other rivers like the Klamath and Feather, fishing groups want the state and feds to ramp up fish hatchery operations that prevented the total collapse of salmon populations during the last drought.
The head of the Golden State Salmon Association said the recent trucking of fish from hatcheries directly to the ocean have proven successful. He also urged the state to try and revive salmon populations by planting in the upper reaches of rivers that have long been inaccessible to fish due to dams.
“The McCloud River and certainly spots on Butte Creek, the Feather River and Yuba River that all would invite that type of action, that sounds good to us, and we would love to participate,” said the association's president John McManus.
Already in 2021 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been going to great lengths to combat the drought.
The lack of water in the state’s main reservoirs and subsequent low river flows forced the department to truck 17 million hatchery reared salmon directly to the ocean earlier this year. Conservation officials have also rescued fish from stagnant pools in stretches of rivers near the Oregon border where flows slowed to a trickle.
With climate experts predicting more severe and frequent droughts for California, director Bonham says the state’s fish hatcheries are prepping for the future. Climate change and outdated water policies are forcing emergency actions, he testified.
“We no longer can count on cold water from reservoirs coming into our hatcheries, keeping the water cool enough to survive hatchery operations,” Bonham told the committee. “We have to come up with contingencies.”
Bonham said he expects added funding in Governor Gavin Newsom’s upcoming January budget proposal to include millions in new funding for upgrades to hatchery operations. “We’re going to spend a lot of money.”
Further clouding the state’s water future is the fact California is currently fighting the feds over water management plans approved by the Trump administration in early 2020. Both the state and environmentalists say the new rules weakened protections for wildlife and sued in federal court over the so-called biological opinions.
Though the Biden administration has agreed to scrap the carryover policy, new operating plans for the critical Central Valley Project aren’t expected to be finalized for multiple years. The state and feds have agreed to an interim operations plan but environmentalists and agricultural water suppliers have pushed back in court. A federal judge overseeing cases brought by the state and environmentalists has yet to approve the interim plan, so the long-term operations of the critical project remain up in the air.
State Sen. Mike McGuire, whose massive district spans from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Oregon border, criticized the pace of negotiations and said he’s concerned his child won’t grow to see salmon running in the Sacramento River.
“We’re beginning to watch the extinction of an iconic species right in front of our eyes,” said the Santa Rosa Democrat. “Each year it keeps getting worse for salmon here in the Golden State and I’m a firm believer antiquated federal water policy has contributed to this specie’s decline.”
McGuire’s committee also received an update on the state’s Dungeness crab commercial fishing season, which has been delayed for the second straight year in much of the state.
The postponement is due to a new state law which bars crab fishing when large numbers of endangered whales and sea turtles are present. A court ordered the state to enact stricter rules after record number of whale entanglements were recorded in 2017.
This week fishery officials halted the traditional start of the fishing season after aerial surveys found over 100 humpback whales off the Northern California coast. Director Bonham said there’s a slight chance the season could be opened in fishing zones 3 and 4 by Thanksgiving, but warned it could remain closed through much of December.
McGuire said it was imperative for the department to deploy a “full-court press” and get crab boats out quickly to meet the holiday season demand.
“I’m nervous in regard to the San Francisco Bay Area, Monterey Bay as well as Sonoma and Marin counties,” McGuire said.
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