News Release Archive

San Joaquin River Restoration Program to Release Spring-Run Chinook Salmon into the San Joaquin River

Media Contact: Shane Hunt, 916-978-5100, shunt@usbr.gov

For Release: March 14, 2016

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP) is planning to release approximately 105,000 hatchery-produced juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon into the San Joaquin River Friday, March 18. The release will provide an opportunity to carry out fisheries studies while contributing to the long-term reintroduction of the spring-run salmon, which were historically abundant in the river until the 1950s.

Of the 105,000 juveniles being released, 45,000 were produced at the SJRRP’s Interim Salmon Conservation and Research Facility in Fresno County. These fish are the first group of juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon produced from adults at the facility’s captive broodstock program. The remaining 60,000 juveniles are from the Feather River Hatchery in Oroville. This is the third consecutive year that fish from the hatchery will be released into the San Joaquin River.

Both groups of fish will be released at the same time at an undisclosed location. The release will happen at night to provide the best possible conditions for the fish, including being less visible to predators and during cooler temperatures as they begin their migration downstream.

As part of this effort, some of these juvenile spring-run salmon are anticipated to return to the river as adults beginning in spring 2018. The SJRRP intends to trap and transport the adults up-river if conditions are such that they cannot make it on their own. They will then be monitored to determine which parts of the river they use, their survival rates during the summer and where they spawn. This information will help further inform future spring-run salmon reintroduction efforts. For questions about the release, please contact John Netto at 916-717-0367.

The SJRRP is a comprehensive long-term effort to restore flows to the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence of the Merced River, restoring self-sustaining Chinook salmon populations in the river while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts from those flows. For more information about the SJRRP, please visit www.restoresjr.net.

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