Salmon spawning runs under way on the Russian River
Bob Norberg
Press Democrat
09/28/2011
The first chinook salmon of the year has passed through the Sonoma County Water Agency's fish ladder in the Russian River near Forestville, the beginning of what is expected to be a good salmon run.
The chinook, a threatened species, was photographed at 8:39 p.m Sunday and was estimated to be about two feet in length.
“From what we have heard, it should be a good return year, there have been good ocean conditions,” said Dave Manning, the water agency's principal environmental specialist.
“Now is the time when we get an indication from other rivers around the region. We have heard on the Eel River they are seeing good numbers of fish and the same on the Klamath,” Manning said. “We may be enjoying a pretty good return this year, but it is far too early to tell.”
The water agency has two fish ladders at Mirabel Beach, where the agency has an inflatable dam that creates a pool of water to feed its water supply pumping system. The dam is up until the rains make the river too high, which is usually in mid-December.
The ladders have cameras to record the chinook, coho and steelhead that start heading upstream to spawn in the fall.
Last year, there were 2,414 chinook salmon captured on camera, but because early season rains caused the water to be cloudy, Manning thinks another 1,000 fish passed through the ladders but were not counted.
