Saving salmon: Hundreds of fish rescued on creek

CHICO -- More than 300 spring-run salmon got a helping human hand to make it home Wednesday.

The big fish were in two pools in Butte Creek, just west of Highway 99, and probably would have died when the water got too warm, officials from the state Department of Fish and Game said.

Altogether, 359 salmon were captured in nets, put into hatchery trucks and then returned to the stream in Butte Creek Canyon, where it was hoped they'd be able to spawn, said Harry Morse, a spokesman for Fish and Game.

These salmon, like thousands of others in the run, hatched in Butte Creek Canyon three years ago. Since then, they've been living in the ocean.

For some reason, the fish that were rescued Wednesday didn't swim into the canyon. They only went as far as a couple of large pools just west of Highway 99.

Neighbors had been watching them and discussing the situation by e-mail with salmon advocates over the last week or so. Requests for action by Fish and Game were made.

The same thing happened last year. Salmon remained in the creek west of Highway 99. Advocates asked Fish and Game to save them, but the response was that action wasn't warranted.

According to e-mails that were forwarded to the E-R last week and earlier this week, Fish and Game initially responded to this year's requests to save the fish by again saying a rescue couldn't be justified.

However, Joe Johnson, a senior environmental scientist with Fish and Game, said he came to Chico from his office in Rancho Cordova on Monday to assess the situation. He said he concluded a rescue was feasible and decided to attempt one on Wednesday.

Morse said it was decided to do the rescue this year for a couple of reasons. For one thing, salmon numbers are low throughout the West. Last year, it was estimated that more than 12,000 spring-run salmon went up Butte Creek to spawn. This year, the estimate is between 5,000 and 6,000.

Also, last year there was concern that the lagging salmon were diseased and could infect healthy fish if they were moved in with them. This year, the salmon below Highway 99 seemed to be quite healthy.

The operation began at 6 a.m. Wednesday. It involved 27 people from Fish and Game and three biologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Morse said.

Johnson said nets were used to gather the fish into a small area. From there, workers caught the 10-to-25-pound fish, one or two at a time, in long-handled landing nets. The netted fish were passed from worker to worker, as in a bucket brigade, up the bank, where they were put into three hatchery trucks with water tanks.

The trucks took the fish to just above the Parrott-Phelan Diversion (Okie) Dam, perhaps a mile from the junction of Skyway and Honey Run Road. There, with the same technique used to load them, the salmon were put back in the creek. It was hoped they'd swim far upstream to cold pools and that they would spawn this fall.

Before the fish were released, a worker clipped their tail fins so they could be identified later.

Johnson said for the last few years, a Fish and Game team has been studying how many salmon in Butte Creek die before they spawn. That team will try to tell how many of the rescued salmon die before spawning this year.

BACKGROUND: While 5,000 to 6,000 spring-run salmon reached upper Butte Creek this spring, more than 300 remained in the lower part of the stream, where they seemed doomed.

WHAT'S NEW: On Wednesday, the Department of Fish and Game rescued the salmon that hadn't swum far enough, moving them by truck into Butte Creek Canyon.

WHAT'S NEXT: A similar situation occurred last year, but the fish weren't rescued, and according to a creekside resident, they died. A member of Friends of Butte Creek said he hoped a way could be found to prevent the problem from recurring.

Reprinted from the July 3, 2008 Enterprise-Record