California Salmon Get Lost Swimming Upstream To Spawn Due To Drought-Warm Water
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Disoriented salmon in California are having a hard time finding their way back upstream after catching a lift earlier.
The wayward salmon were part of generations of baby salmon that hatchery authorities carried toward the Pacific in tanker trucks in 2014 and 2015. California's fierce five-year drought made the water too hot for the cold-water salmon to survive the trip on their own.
Officials say trucking baby salmon downstream those years helped save many. But many of those salmon are getting lost now that it's time to head back upstream to reproduce, and winding up in other watersheds.
John McManus of the Golden Gate Salmon Association says the result could be a dip in the overall salmon population in 2020.
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