Salmon begin their run

<p>The first chinook have passed through the Sonoma County Water Agency fish ladder in the Russian River at Forestville, the beginning of a fall spawning run that biologists expect to be the best in five years.</p><p>“This year it should be better, I would say in the range of 3,000 by the end of the season, maybe more,” said Bill Sydeman of Petaluma, president of the Farallon Institute for Ecosystem Research.</p><p>“The conditions that determine their ocean survival in 2008 and 2009 were good, that means their survival should be pretty good.”</p><p>Chinook, which are listed by the federal government as a threatened species, have been monitored on the Russian River for the past 10 years.</p><p>The number of chinook returning to the Sacramento River determines the ocean salmon fishing season, but regulators do take into account the Russian River return.</p><p>The peak number in the Russian River was 6,103 counted in 2003 and the least number was 1,125 in 2008. Last year, 1,801 were counted.</p><p>Sydeman said chinook return two years after migrating to the ocean as fingerlings, feeding on krill to survive initially and then on such small fish as juvenile rock fish, anchovies and smelt.</p><p>The fish that are returning now would have been in the ocean from 2007 to 2009, when the ocean was cold and feeding conditions favorable.</p><p>Chinook are the largest of the salmon and steelhead that return to spawn in the Russian River and its tributaries.</p><p>Three fish were photographed at the Water Agency's rubber dam at Forestville as the fish go through the fish ladders.</p><p>“We get fish usually the first week of September, but last year we didn't get fish until October because the estuary was closed,” said Dave Manning, a senior environmental specialist with the Water Agency. “We did receive reports from biologists they had seen fish in the estuary in early September and sportsmen have seen chinook in the lower river.”</p><p>The sandbar at the mouth of the Russian River at Jenner, where the river forms an estuary, is now closed, but Water Agency workers are planning digging an outlet channel either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on sea conditions.</p><p>After Oct. 15, the agency can dig a much deeper trench through the sand bar that will provide an even better channel for fish to enter.</p><p>[END_CREDIT_0]You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.</p>