For the first time in its 59-year-history, CDFW’s Iron Gate Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County will not release its young salmon into the Klamath River as a result of the drought, disease, and other poor river conditions that would most likely doom the fish. The baby salmon, about seven months old and about three inches in length, are normally released into the Klamath River in May and June.
CDFW has instead relocated 1.1 million of those juvenile, fall-run Chinook salmon to ride out the summer in cooler waters. The fish were trucked to a nearby satellite facility and to the Trinity River Hatchery 122 miles away where they will remain until conditions in the Klamath River improve.
