A large batch of juvenile Salmon have been released into the Klamath River following a die-off last month that was blamed on the dams currently being demolished. The First of March marked the first-ever release of Fall Run Chinook Fry from California’s new $35 Million Fall Creek Hatchery. 830,000 of the young fish swam down the Klamath and many or most of them are believed to have been killed by Gas Bubble Disease while going through the Iron Gate Dam tunnel. The four dams on the Klamath are scheduled for removal later this year, a project largely being done for the benefit of Salmon survival. Because of lessons learned by the die-off, future Salmon releases from the Fall Creek Hatchery will be done 7 miles downriver until Iron Gate is torn out. Last week 90,000 Coho Salmon yearlings and 400,000 Chinook were trucked to the new release location. State Fish and Wildlife officials say the conditions were ideal, with the river temperature at 51 Degrees. Another 1.5 Million Chinook smolts will be released later in the Spring. Nobody’s happier about the dam removal than the Karuk Tribe, with one official saying “Our Kids no longer have to see our river die.”
– Steve Gibson