California trucks salmon to Pacific; low river levels blamed

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California officials will again truck millions of young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the state's Central Valley agricultural region to the Pacific Ocean because projected river conditions show that the waterways the fish use to travel downstream will be historically low and warm due to increasing drought.

Officials announced the massive trucking operation on Wednesday, saying the effort is aimed at ensuring “the highest level of survival for the young salmon on their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean.”

“Trucking young salmon to downstream release sites has proven to be one of the best ways to increase survival to the ocean during dry conditions,” Jason Julienne, North Central Region Hatchery Supervisor said in a statement.

California is now in its second year of drought after a winter with little precipitation and it's the state's fourth-driest year on record, especially in the northern two-thirds of the state, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Illustrating the state's risk of drought, record low reservoir levels led Gov. Gavin Newsom last week to proclaim a regional drought emergency for the Russian River watershed in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

More than 16.8 million young salmon from four Central Valley hatcheries will be trucked to coastal sites around the San Pablo, San Francisco, Half Moon and Monterey bays.

It will take about 146 truckloads to get the fish transported from

Getting the fish transported means taking about 146 truckloads to the Pacific Ocean from four state hatcheries and federal officials will do the same from one hatchery, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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