North Coast · Adopt-a-Salmon
Adopt-a-Salmon
Every year, our North Coast team follows young salmon and steelhead on their journey from the rivers to the ocean where they’ll spend most of their adult lives — and this program lets you follow along with them.
About the Program
Adopt-a-Salmon and follow its journey to the ocean
Each year, thousands of young salmon in the Eel River set out on one of the most dangerous journeys of their lives — the migration downstream to the Pacific Ocean. CalTrout’s monitoring team has spent years tagging and tracking these fish, using acoustic tags and receivers to understand exactly where salmon thrive and where they struggle. Through the Adopt-a-Salmon program, you can follow that science with us.
When you adopt a salmon, you’re sponsoring one of the juvenile fish our scientists are tracking. You’ll receive short SMS updates about your salmon’s journey through the river towards the ocean, the threats it may encounter along the way, and the aid it is getting from CalTrout’s team who are working day-in and day-out to make this journey easier.
Here’s the hard truth: fewer than 1 in 10 juvenile salmon survive the journey to the ocean. Every adoption helps fund the monitoring work that tells us why — and the restoration work that’s improving those odds. Will your salmon make it? There’s only one way to find out!
The adoption of one salmon costs $200. Adoption closes on October 1, and we expect the SMS updates to begin shorty after, continuing through early November when you will discover the fate of your salmon. You can also adopt a salmon on behalf of someone else and they will receive the updates on that fish.
WATCH the video
Hear from Scientist Gabe Rossi on why you should adopt.
A NETWORK OF RECEIVERS
The Journey to the Ocean
Once tagged, every fish faces a perilous swim to the sea — including invasive pikeminnow lying in wait along the way. A network of receiver stations along the Eel River picks up each tagged fish as it passes, letting the team follow its progress toward the ocean in near real time to see where survival rates drop off along the way.
MAP OF RECEIVER NETWORK
300+
Juvenile coho salmon tagged this year across Indian Creek, Sproul Creek, and the South Fork Eel River
40–125
Miles a tagged fish may travel from its tagging site to the ocean
<10%
Of young salmon make it to the ocean
SUPPORT THE NEXT GENERATION OF SALMON
Help us raise the odds!
Adopt your salmon today, and you will be contributing to our work to raise the odds of survival for young salmon in the South Fork Eel River.