http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/

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Only 318,000 of California’s juvenile winter-run salmon survived in 2015, for a meager 3 percent survival rate, given nearly 10 million eggs. Water temperatures became too warm in the drought-stricken Sacramento River and its tributaries for the young fish to survive, making 2015 the second straight year of paltry survival numbers for the fish. In 2014, just 5 percent of the salmon survived, compared to the pre-drought year of 2011 when 41 percent survived. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service intends to release hundreds of thousands of hatchery-raised winter-run salmon in February 2016 to compensate for the high mortality rate in 2015. The Sacramento Bee (Calif.), Feb. 1, 2016 Most endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in 2015 died from low water levels and high temperatures before they traveled as far south as Red Bluff. This was the second consecutive year of death rates of at least 95 percent of the young winter-run salmon, pushing state and federal agencies to do all in their power to help the fish avoid extinction. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials intend to release as many as 425,000 winter-run salmon in the Redding area in late January and early February to make up for the many winter-run salmon that succumbed to low river water and high temperatures in 2015. Fish and wildlife officials typically release about 175,000 fish each winter, but bumped up the number due to the fishes’ high death rate. Redding Record Searchlight (Calif.), Jan. 14, 2016