**Chinook Salmon Returns** Returning Chinook salmon are making an incredible comeback! Just one year after the Klamath River dams came down, these fish are now repopulating almost every stretch of their historic upstream habitat. 🐟💫 CDFW has put more than $30 million into restoring and reopening these waterways for future generations. One of the biggest wins? The dramatic demolition of a concrete barrier on Jenny Creek this past September — a project that opened up another full mile of prime s

Why are Chinook salmon in patagonia so much bigger than Chinook on the Great Lakes? For starters, Chinook in Patagonia have an open ocean diet, meaning their food tends to be larger in size and more plentiful than lake salmon. Secondly, their feeding season is mostly year round, while Great Lakes fish face the winter season, where feeding slows down. Third- the Great Lakes are fished heavily, limiting potential for full growth, while Patagonia salmon are mostly left alone. Even with tourist fish

Bay releases of smolt-sized fall-run Chinook salmon raised at our Feather, Nimbus, and Mokelumne River Fish hatcheries are one the strategies that CDFW uses to increase salmon populations. CDFW uses specially designed transport tanks to bypass, sometimes by 100 miles or more of the migration corridor between our hatcheries and release sites such as Fort Baker, located across the Golden Gate Bridge. The goal of bay releases is to balance improved smolt survival, which provides opportunities for o