With the major fieldwork for our 2022–23 field season now completed, here is a brief update on current status from Paul Buttner, the Project Manager for the California Ricelands Salmon Project. It includes a link to a recent KPIX story about the project.
Last week of Intensive Field Season Updates This week represented “Finals Week” for the UC Davis crew that has worked tirelessly throughout this crazy, but productive, field season. They have managed through not just one but two separate bypass flooding events and they were still going strong as they managed through this final week comprised[…]
Breaking News: Sudden Change of Daily Activities This week started out fairly hectic as we learned on Tuesday, March 8 that the Sutter Bypass was expected the run again starting late-Friday night, March 10. Beginning March 8, this initiated a flurry of activity to prioritize field draining and removal of caged fish to relocate them to the[…]
Updated Catch Numbers To date, we had captured over 372 fish via trap net and seining. Based on size chart assessments, these included 69 wild fall-run sized, 1 late-full-run-sized, 8 winter-run-sized, and 7 spring-run-sized Chinook salmon. We still had found/experienced 0 mortality of any non-fall-run wild Chinook salmon. Overall mortality has been low. About 3.5%[…]
So far, we had captured 363 fish via trap net and seining. Based on size chart assessments, these include 63 wild fall-run sized, 1 late-full-run-sized, 9 winter-run-sized, and 5 spring-run-sized Chinook salmon. We found/experienced 0 mortality of any non-fall-run wild Chinook salmon. Mortality was low. About 3.3% (12/363) mortality of all fish encountered by this[…]
After having introduced the 4,500 Fall run (all PIT tagged) and 100 Late-Fall yearlings (all PIT and JSATS tagged) into the fields the previous week, emphasis has turned to utilizing the network of seven PIT readers at the rice boxes to collect data on fish movements within the field and out the field drain. All[…]
Project field is fully contained with a much lower volume of water leaving the field only through the modified board with a hole/notch. Therefore, the rate of exit of fish from the field has reduced to about 1–3 fish per day. However, the science team continues counting and releasing fish daily. We have counted about[…]
The bypass floodwaters receded enough to enable the project field to be safely accessed and the intensive data collection and management practice implementation officially began. UCD science team work included seining, beginning phases of PIT system installation in the field, and installation of a large fyke net system at the outfall drain of the field[…]
The flooding levels of the fields was beginning to subside and expected to become accessible for work by the middle of following week as the bypass continues to slowly drain. The UCD Team was able to begin some initial seining activity by the end of this week. The Team also deployed lab-reared fish into cages[…]
No significant change in field conditions from the previous week in that the Sutter Bypass remained inundated with floodwaters. The UCD team remained ready to begin sampling for recruitment of natural occurring fishes (wild or hatchery-origin) just as soon as they could regain access. The Team continued work with the two groups of hatchery-origin fish[…]