Follow Joe and Kyle as they search for spawning Fall Run Chinook salmon in California rivers. Watch female salmon construct redds (their gravel bed nests) and avoid predators like sea lions and eagles. Joe and Kyle also discuss the major changes to Chinook salmon habitat in California –namely the construction of rim dams. Joe and Kyle also visit a fish hatchery constructed to mitigate the loss of salmon habitat due to dams.

Chinook Salmon are the most prevalent salmon in California. During the salmon run, adult Chinook leave the ocean and travel upstream into freshwater searching for their natal river –the place of their birth. Once there, adult salmon spawn. Female salmon build a redd, a nest in the gravel bed, and lay eggs. After the spawn occurs, adult salmon die having completed their life cycle.

Chinook salmon spawning habitat is now limited due to the construction of dams. Dams form barriers preventing salmon from reaching reach native spawning areas. Fish hatcheries have been constructed to mitigate the loss of upstream native salmon spawning areas, but hatcheries don’t mitigate the loss of salmon to upstream ancestral lands, nor allow natural selection to occur.

EP1, Season One.