 REDDING, Calif. (KCBS) -- In an effort to pump up the depleted salmon population, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will use a risky strategy they’ve never tried before.
”This year we’re planning on trucking about 1.4 million of our Chinook salmon smolts to San Pablo Bay for release directly into the bay,” said Scott Hamilburg, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who works at the Coleman National Fish Hatchery located on a tributary of the upper Sacramento River just south of Redding.
”A portion of our fish are being trucked, while a larger portion of our fish are also released on site might give us some more information on the survival tendencies of the fish released at the various sites,” said Hamilburg.
But Hamilton says that without a chance to go through the imprinting process, the young smolts won’t likely come back to the upper Sacramento River to breed. Some of the fish will be tagged, to see if any do choose to go up the Sacramento River.
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KCBS' Larry Chiaroni reports
