Department of Fish and Game

We’re counting fish at West Side!
UC Cooperative Extension and California Sea Grant Coho Monitoring Project ~ Outmigrant Trapping Update for 2007 at West Side School. 

The Russian River once supported a coho salmon population in the thousands.  Today, only a few small remnant populations are left, primarily due to habitat loss and degradation. Because coho spend the first year and a half of their lives in fresh water, they are particularly vulnerable to the disruption of stream habitat. Subsequently, coho salmon are currently listed as endangered under both state and federal endangered species acts.  The principal aim of this project is to re-establish the historically strong runs of coho to the Russian River. In the spring and fall of 2004, the Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program released approximately 11,600 juvenile coho salmon into the Mill Creek drainage.  The once small coho parr have since grown into larger smolts in preparation for entering the ocean.  This journey to the ocean has begun and the Coho Monitoring Project team is once again revving up to begin the outmigrant trapping.  Our wooden box trap is now located in Mill Creek directly behind the West Side School.  As the coho smolts make their way downstream, they enter the trap at which point team members collect important data on growth and survival of the fish.  This data gives us information on the overall health of the outmigrating fish and by marking a few of them, releasing them upstream, and recapturing them, we can estimate the total number migrating to sea.  Since the trap is now in the creek and fishing, a team has been coming out everyday to process the fish in the trap.  To our delight, Mrs. Brooks’ sixth grade class will once again be joining the UC staff at the trap this year. If you would like to know more about the project, visit the website at: http://cesonoma.ucdavis.edu/coho/coho_index.html