Recent Storms Provide Wiggle Room for Salmon Seeking Spawning Ground in the Eel River
[Photos by Ann Constantino]
“Because of the rains being late they’ve been waiting around near the mouth of the river, but the recent storms added enough water to the river to make journey upstream easier,” Constantino explained.
Once legendary for its massive salmon and steelhead runs, the Eel River population of these fish began declining in the early ’70’s. “[By] the ’90s, all three species of salmon and steelhead on the North Coast were listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered,” says the Fly Fisherman. “The fish were nearly gone, and so were the dollars they had brought into the local economy.”
Two salmon swim through the Eel River side by side.
Each fish that makes it upstream offers a chance for thousands of eggs to be deposited in the river. However, few of those hatch and fewer reach maturity and return to spawn.
These fish swimming upstream in the Eel represent simultaneously the few survivors of each hatch and the opportunity to build abundance again.
Four of our favorite posts with photos by Ann Constantino on Redheaded Blackbelt are linked below.(Follow Ann on Facebook for more photos of wildlife):
- Osprey Does Its Part to Reduce Pikeminnow Population
- Otterly Delicious!
- Otterly Riveting
- Stressed out? Buck Up
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🕯🌳Good morning Kym and thank you for that article. 👍🏽🖖🎅
5 word comments is Zen.
It’s heartbreaking for those of us that remember….
At last! They have been patient by necessity… may it be a good spawning year. For, while I agree with guest and share the the sorrow of the diminished runs, each still carries hope for the future.
Kind of like the native indain people almost gone forever only very few left if you just leave them alone they will survive
Fish and Game’s admitted screw up with their Pike minnow release into Lake Pillsbury is the current timeline cause for a diminished salmonoid run(s). Without the full eradication of all rivers/streams with Pike minnow, there will never be a return of salmon to say it coming back. Its easier to say “nature will take its course” with all the liberals in F&G-AND NEVER DO ANYTHING!!!!!
Go kill some.
Yeah, easy to blame people you don’t know who have partial responsibility over these things. But mining, degradation of spawning grounds, dams, etc., all have a role in this. Not just people that try and keep the runs alive by operating hatcheries, regulations, etc.
You forgot the growers and the diversion of the streams
That’s really cool! It’s a total trip watching them swim upstream! Hope their numbers are super high this year! Nice pictures Ann!
I seriously hope the Cannabliss industry and the Salmon can thrive in harmony! Please cover your soil or plant cover crops to prevent nutrients leaching into the rivers!
The nutrient leaching is more of a concern for algae blooms which can be fatal to some mammals.
Algae blooms are also bad for fish because and aquatic life because they deprive the rivers of much needed Oxygen.
Agreed
👍🏽
Around Garberville in the 70s, salmon fishing season was a big deal, giving businesses like motels, stores and restaurants a bump between tourist season and the winter doldrums. Motel Garberville had a fish cleaning station. Local fishing guides took customers out in boats. And of course many locals loved to fish. Salmon season was big.
The populations of salmon and steelhead dropped off a cliff following the 1964 Christmas Flood and have never been close to the same, granted fishing had recovered in 70s to greater fish populations than at present. You are correct in that there were more fish and more recreational fish related local businesses back in the 70s but there were more prior to the 55 and 64 floods (that hurt the resorts and the fisheries). My grandparents and then parents had a well known (now long gone) hunting and fishing resort on the Klamath from 1921 to 1958 that was originally purchased and reconstructed with $$ assistance from members of what was then the San Francisco Fly Casting Club. First place I ever lived.
swim fishy swim
Take down that DAM and close off the Russian River DIVERSION…… let the Eel River come back…. We dont need no stinking Grapes…
We don’t need no stinking pike minnow either. You can’t release a predatory species without having adverse effects on the ecosystem. The dam is minor compared to the damage of the pike minnow
Yup. I think it’s crazy to push for the multi-billion dollar dam removal when the pikeminnow problem is clearly affecting the populations more (the tributaries without dams have extremely depressed returns). The pikeminnow problem could be easily kept in check for a couple hundred thousand, if someone in charge had a brain. If that dam comes out before pikeminnow removal, there is going to be a negligible effect on salmonid populations.
There are many causes for the decline of the salmon. The dams are one, the pikeminnow are another, downstream extractions (for ANY reason), pollution, predation by marine mammals at the river’s mouth, historic overfishing, and of course climate change — and maybe I’ve left out a few. The important thing is that we need to abate ALL of these impacts to the greatest extent possible. No one thing caused this trouble and no one “fix” will work. I also want to add, re pikeminnow v. dams, that there’s some question as to whether the pikeminnow would ever have gotten into the Eel River system if Lake Pillsbury didn’t exist, because the story widely believed is that the pikeminnow were released by someone using them as bait to fish from a boat. I don’t know if this is accurate, but as I said, it is widely believed.
If climate change caused the ‘64 flood then it had a impact. We should tear out Scott’s dam because someone introduced a invasive predatory species, that makes way more sense than attempting to mange the population of that species. Stupid dam.
The marine mammals have coexisted with the salmon for millions of years. Leave them alone. Everything else listed is the bigger part of the problem and those have all been created by humans.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/lower-levels-of-oil-pollution-harm-herring-and-salmon-study-finds/
Move roads away from rivers where salmon spawn. Check your vehicles for leaks regularly. Better yet go off grid with your own solar system and buy an electric moped or mountain e-bike
Never could understand why there haven’t been more pike minnow fishing contests in the summer. Thirty years ago I was swimming in the South Fork and Fish and Game came through doing a pike minnow survey and talked about how they were going to dynamite pools with large amounts of pike minnows. That that was even considered despite the obvious collateral damage of killing the few salmonid seemed… ‘so bureaucratic’. What has been done since? Nada. They even had a spearfishing idea recently but backed off of it apparently. ‘Taint rocket science, ’tis a shame that solving the problem is in the hands of a do nothing bureaucracy.
Happy to see those salmon! Thanks Ann
Dynamite?.. That does sound incredibly bureaucratic! Plus release a lot of sediment downstream! I actually wonder if net fishing them out would be possible? The salmon are seasonal right? Maybe net fish them out between Salmon Runs? IDK.. But, I kinda wonder if there was a Salmon Hatchery, if that would also help. I think they have all been shut down, maybe they are needed..