One of the last wild runs of chinook salmon in California is sinking fast amid the four-year drought and now appears perilously close to oblivion after the federal agency in charge of protecting marine life documented the death of millions of young fish and eggs in the Sacramento River.
As per the data revealed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 217,489 juvenile Chinook had been counted so far this year downstream of Shasta Dam which is 62,463 fewer than the count in 2014. The hatchery would save the species from extinction but salmon recovery efforts would suffer a huge setback. To compensate for the reduced flows from Shasta, officials ramped up the releases from Folsom Lake in order to maintain water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This year, more adult fish ran up the river than they did in 2014…
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