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Feather River and Nimbus Hatcheries Meet Salmon Egg Take Goals, Mokelumne Hatchery to receive surplus eggs

December 30, 2008 -- The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) announced today that Feather River and Nimbus hatcheries met salmon egg collection goals for Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook. These hatcheries are two of the biggest state-operated salmon hatcheries in California and are key to sustaining this important stock of salmon. They took more than 16.9 million eggs for rearing of this stock.

“That our Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook salmon egg mitigation goals were met this year at Feather River and Nimbus hatcheries is a significant achievement,” said Neil Manji, DFG Fisheries Branch Chief. “Getting enough adult spawners back for egg production in 2008 was a major concern for DFG since in 2007, the Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook salmon return was one of the lowest in recent history indicating the possibility of even lower returns in 2008.”

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s 2008 forecast estimated less than 60,000 adult Fall-Run Chinook salmon would return to the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems, significantly below the minimum conservation goal of 121,000 adults.
Both hatcheries were established to mitigate for the losses of natural reproduction when dams stopped salmon from returning to their historic spawning areas on the Feather and American rivers.

The Feather River Hatchery completed its salmon spawning operation collecting 10.2 million eggs to achieve its mitigation goal of releasing six million young Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook salmon. It will raise another half million young salmon for enhancement projects and as many as possible for salmon research projects from the remaining eggs.  

The Nimbus Hatchery on the American River completed its spawning operation collecting 6.7 million Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook eggs. It will meet the mitigation goal of releasing four million Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook smolts.  

“We are pleased there are enough adult spawners to at least meet our mitigation goals and provide some additional eggs at Nimbus and Feather River hatcheries,” said Walt Beer, DFG Hatchery Coordinator. “The unprecedented low adult return to Mokelumne River Hatchery will severely restrict their production. Some eggs in excess of Nimbus’s goal will be transferred to Mokelumne after normal losses in hatchery processes are accounted for.”

The Mokelumne River Hatchery will not meet its egg take goal of eight to nine million eggs. Only 234 adult salmon returned to the hatchery producing 275,600 eggs. The average yearly return is approximately 5,500 adult salmon.

The Sacramento Fall-Run Chinook salmon run was one of the biggest on the west coast and a major driver of commercial and recreational fishing. In 2002, an estimated 880,000 of these salmon returned inland. For 2008, it was estimated that less than 60,000 adults would return – significantly below the minimum conservation goal of 121,000 returning adults. This triggered the closure of all of California’s ocean salmon for the first time in history.

Contact:      

Harry Morse, DFG Communications, (916) 322-8962
Armando Quinones, Senior Hatchery Supervisor, North Central Region,  (530) 894-8540