http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

v 2.4.3.0

Ninety-five percent of the winter-run chinook eggs, hatchlings and juvenile salmon in the Sacramento River perished this year, like in 2014, due to the warm, drought-depleted Sacramento River and its tributaries, announced the National Marine Fisheries Service. The fish would typically return in three years to spawn, but with two consecutive years’ worth of salmon dying, this wild run could be nearly extinct and will require careful monitoring and protection in 2016. San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate.com), Oct. 29, 2015 Three times as many as usual or about 600,000 Chinook salmon will be released into the Sacramento River below Keswick Dam by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Warm water allowed a massive fish die-off to occur in 2014 when about 95 percent of the salmon eggs and newly hatched fish died. Winter-run salmon need water temperatures of 60 degrees or less for successful spawning. Shasta Lake, from which the water is released, has fallen to its second lowest level, putting the reservoir at 42 percent of capacity. The relatively small quantity of water warms more than if the lake were larger and deeper, and lacks a pool of colder water that is drawn upon for spawning season. Only 5 percent of the juvenile salmon survived in 2014, compared with a typical survival rate of about 27 percent, said a spokeswoman for the State Department of Fish and Wildlife. San Jose Mercury News (Calif.), Jan. 28, 2015