Fishing and environmental organizations are calling for extreme measures to save the year's fall runs of salmon in Central Valley rivers.

The Golden Gate Salmon Association is joining with the The Nature Conservancy, American Rivers, Northern California Water Association and the Glenn Colusa Irrigation District to call for removing salmon eggs from spawning fish, hatching them and then releasing young fish back into the Sacramento and American rivers when it is safe.

River temperatures in the upper Sacramento River, where historically a third of Central Valley fall run salmon spawned, are too hot and will kill incubating eggs. GGSA is calling for collection and incubation of eggs from adult fish. These could later be injected back into the river gravels in November or December when temperatures are conducive to final incubation and hatching. They could also be raised to fry stage and released into the river. The injection technique has been successfully used in Alaska, Oregon and elsewhere to seed salmon into watersheds. Without this extraordinary step, an entire year class of fall-run salmon could be lost. Salmon eggs need temperatures at 56 degrees or less to survive. At 62 degrees there is 100 percent mortality.

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