California tests new hatchery release tactics to give salmon and fishing communities a fighting chance.

California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is doing something rare for a state agency: teaming up with the powerful Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the fishing industry to rethink how and when hatchery salmon are released. The goal is simple but ambitious—diversify release strategies so more fish survive a warming, heavily managed river system.

To understand the shift, I spoke with Jay Rowan, CDFW’s chief of the Fisheries Branch. He says one of the main constraints on Central Valley fall-run Chinook—especially in drought years—has been “poor egg-to-fry survival due to warm water temperatures below several of the major reservoirs during the first several weeks of spawning and incubation.” The trend line isn’t encouraging. “As the climate continues to warm,” Rowan notes, “these warm water conditions will become more frequent.” One pilot tactic is to use unfed hatchery fry to supplement natural production, with the hope that those fish will return to natural spawning grounds in wetter years and bolster wild runs.

Tracking these tiny fish is its own challenge. Fry are too small for the standard coded-wire tag and adipose-fin clip used for adult monitoring, so CDFW is testing genetics-based Parental-Based Tagging (PBT). The idea is to generate actionable data fast enough to inform the annual ocean and inland salmon season setting at the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission. If all goes as planned, the first adults from the initial fry releases should start showing up this year as three-year-olds. Rowan says the agency will monitor returns for at least three full years before deciding whether to scale up. Regardless of the fry results, he adds, CDFW intends to keep expanding PBT—budget permitting—to support above-dam reintroduction experiments and deepen genetic insight into natural-origin fish.

The industry is on board. James Stone, president of the Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association (NCGASA), which represents hundreds of professional guides and thousands of recreational anglers, argues that parental-based tagging is not just a lab upgrade—it’s a timing tool. “Advancements in parent-based tagging allow us to release fish when environmental conditions are right,” he says. Under the old system, hatcheries could be backlogged with coded-wire tagging and fin-clipping, delaying releases past optimal windows. Moving broadly to PBT—at all current hatcheries and, eventually, at a new Sacramento facility—would “diversify release strategies and correct release timing to ensure juvenile survival and out-migration.”

Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, puts it more starkly: this is about survival—of salmon, of fishing families, of jobs, of whole river towns and coastal communities. He applauds CDFW’s diversified approach. “With yet another year of low salmon numbers, it’s imperative that we take a page from the survival strategies of salmon,” he says. “They don’t put all their eggs in one basket, and we shouldn’t either.” For Artis, the “salmon recovery toolbox” must include fry releases, PBT, ocean net pens, and trucking smolts to the lower estuary or San Francisco Bay when river conditions turn hostile. The more release tools managers have at hand, the better they can match flow and temperature to maximize juvenile survival—and, eventually, adult returns.

There’s also the elephant in the room: water. Mike Aughney, vice chair of the Golden State Salmon Association, argues that even the smartest release strategy can be undercut by pumping and diversions that sweep baby salmon—hatchery and wild—into the federal and state export pumps. He wants targeted relief: “Even just a week of reduced pumping during peak out-migration could be very successful.” Peak is typically spring snowmelt—April through June. He also points to lethal temperatures and dewatered redds on spawning grounds as a driver of collapse. “The number one reason the season has been closed the past two years,” he says, “is [that] natural fish on the upper Sac in 2020 and 2021 suffered catastrophic mortality.” In his view, if managers can’t guarantee cold water and adequate flow, then trucking becomes a necessary backstop.

None of this is brand-new in concept. Hatcheries in British Columbia—Quinsam, Qualicum, Robertson Creek—have spent decades testing timing and size at release, matching ocean entry to zooplankton blooms, and evaluating predators’ homing on predictable release points. The broader science, including NOAA’s “Report Card on Recovery” for West Coast salmon and steelhead, has long highlighted practices that improve odds: releasing fish when ocean food is abundant or competition is lower; releasing heavier smolts; using historical tributaries; letting fish leave volitionally when ready versus forcing a date; staging fish in ocean net pens to ease the freshwater-to-saltwater transition; and staggering life-stage releases to mimic natural variability.

California’s wager is to knit those insights into policy and practice at scale—and to do it in partnership with the people on the water. If managers can pair smarter genetics-based monitoring with flexible release tactics, and if water operations can be aligned—at least during the most critical weeks—the state might yet rebuild a run that sustains ecosystems and economies alike. That’s what a real toolbox for survival looks like.

This article was originally posted in Hatchery International.