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| Coho salmon making return to Pescadero Creek By Nick Casey--[ nick@hmbreview.com ] Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 12:34 PM PST For the first time in nearly 30 years, anglers on the Pescadero Creek have been finding Coho salmon on the other end of the line. A joint project by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project has brought scientists and volunteers together to monitor and reintroduce the fish as part of an ongoing restoration of local waterways. Bruce MacFarlane of NOAA's Southwest Marine Fisheries Science Center explained that tanks in his Santa Cruz County facility currently hold vast stocks of potential transplants ready for deployment on the South Coast. Depending on how fish populations in the stream fare during this winter's spawning season, more will be reintroduced into the creek - the third time since the project began in 2005. "The fishery science center's main charge has been research, but we've found a great opportunity for conservation here," explained MacFarlane. The project was first hatched by the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project, a nonprofit whose work reintroducing steelhead trout and salmon to local streams has gone on since the 1980s. "They were once common throughout this area," explained Dave Streig who heads the Salmon and Trout Project. However, after a drought from 1975 to 1977 the Pescadero salmon all but disappeared when the creek failed to have sufficient flow to allow the Coho to spawn. Once reintroduced, the salmon have an uncanny ability to find the tiny creek, even after long spells in the Pacific. Though they will wander the sea for two years before returning to lay eggs, a series of celestial, solar and magnetic cues allow the fish to relocate their native waters, explained MacFarlane. In addition, a hyper-sensitive olfactory system allows the fish to literally "smell" the creek. "It's a dramatic form of imprinting, but when you think about it, if the creek was good enough for spawning when the fish was born there, it's likely to be a choice place to spawn again," said MacFarlane. NOAA scientists will continue to monitor the fish throughout the current spawning season, which lasts until the end of February. If this year's populations look like they're lagging, the scientists will give the creek a dose of new Coho. |