KarunaNews Story

The speed with which salmon returned after four hydroelectric dams were removed from the Klamath River has astonished biologists. On Oct. 16, they spied fall Chinook salmon in Oregon, above all four former dam sites. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has installed “video weirs” in key tributaries, and crews on the ground are surveying spawning salmon. Cal Trout has installed a sonar monitoring station above the former Iron Gate dam and is sampling fish using special nets. Some fish are being fitted with radio tags and passive integrated transponders so they can be tracked as they move upstream. In the upper basin, ODFW is working with the Klamath Tribes, university researchers, and other partners to conduct spawning surveys and set up monitoring stations to detect tagged fish.