The salmon? They're back

Chinook salmon, the reason Sonoma County residents were ordered to cut back on watering lawns and washing cars over the past four months, are making their way up the Russian River.

"It absolutely worked," said Sean White, a biologist with the Sonoma County Water Agency, referring to the conservation measures that were taken. "Lake Mendocino was forecast to have 20,000 acre-feet left without conservation . . . practically nothing left for the fish."

Now it has 37,000 acre-feet, its lowest for this time in any of the past five years, but enough to increase the Russian River flows for the salmon, as dam operators did Thursday.

The number of fish that have been counted so far, however, is fewer than that seen in any of the seven years the fish have been monitored.

Biologists aren't sure whether the fish are returning late to spawn or young fish suffered during their Pacific Ocean stay and the population has decreased, said Dave Manning, the water agency's senior environmental specialist.

"We can't be concerned yet," Manning said. "There is anecdotal evidence we are seeing in other streams that fish are just late."

After a dry spring and with less water being diverted from the Eel River to Lake Mendocino, the water agency was ordered by the state Water Resources Control Board on July 1 to reduce the amount of water that it takes from the Russian River by 15 percent, compared with 2004. The order ends Sunday.

The water agency asked the cities and districts that buy its water to implement conservation measures. The measures put in place by the agency's customers resulted in a 21.7 percent reduction as of Wednesday, water officials said.

Much of the river water saved by the customers came from the use of alternatives, such as well water.

"We've made it," water agency spokesman Tim Anderson said.

The federal government requires the agency to keep the Russian River flowing at 185 cubic feet per second at Healdsburg during the chinook run.

On Thursday, the river was running at 172 cubic feet per second and was being increased to 185 cubic feet, Manning said.

Lake Mendocino had 37,600 acre-feet of water on Thursday, compared with 60,000 acre-feet at the same time in 2003, 41,000 acre-feet in 2004, 58,000 acre-feet in 2005 and 58,500 acre-feet last year.

The water agency began counting chinook salmon in 2000, establishing for the first time that there was a viable population.

"Everyone assumed that the chinook were functionally extinct," Manning said. "People thought there were few left. We found the opposite."

Using DNA tests, scientists also established that it was a distinct native chinook run unrelated to salmon in other North Coast streams or to the chinook salmon that have been planted in the Russian River in the past, Manning said.

The salmon will spawn in the main stem of the Russian River primarily in October and November, and the juvenile fish will swim to the ocean, where they spend from two to four years eating krill and small fish before returning.

The peak count was in 2003, when 6,081 chinook were counted and some 200,000 juvenile fish swam downstream to the ocean, Manning said.

By this time that year, there already were 1,120 chinook counted moving through the fish ladder, compared with 67 this year.

The counts are being made this year with a new $12,000 digital video system, which uses underwater cameras and lights in the two fish ladders at the 12-foot inflatable dam at Mirabel. The dam is usually up from April to December.

The camera feeds are transmitted live to the agency's Santa Rosa offices and also downloaded to compact discs, which are studied by workers who physically count the fish.

You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.THE WATER

The Sonoma County Water Agency was ordered by the state Water Resources Control Board on July 1 to reduce the amount it takes from the Russian River by 15%, compared with 2004. The order ends Sunday.

THE CHINOOK

The Water Agency began counting the fish in 2000.

The peak count was in 2003, when 6,081 chinook were counted and some 200,000 juvenile fish swam downstream to the ocean.

By this time that year, there already were 1,120 chinook counted moving through the fish ladder, compared to 67 this year.