Drought, Warming Temperatures Threaten Endangered California Salmon Population

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2021

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California’s ongoing drought and predicted heatwave is causing overly warm and low level waters and threatening to kill off the entire populations of already endangered species like the chinook salmon. Negotiations between the State Water Resources Control Board and the federal Bureau of Reclamation approved a plan for managing water levels. However, experts predict that releasing water into the irrigation system this early will disrupt salmon spawning season and could kill as many as 88% of the salmon in the river. These complications coincide with the increase in a parasite that’s also killing off the fish. We discuss the impact of poor water conditions and increasing heat and hear what creative options are on the table to save the salmon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Key QBD Podcasts comes from San Francisco International Airport.
0:05.1	At SFO, you can shop, dine, and unwind before your flight.
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0:15.8	Greetings, boomtown.
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0:22.7	So we've all got lightning fast speeds at home and on the go. Learn more at Xfinity.com. Restrictions
0:28.5	apply. Xfinity internet required. Actual speeds vary. From KQED. Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. California's salmon are in trouble.
0:40.7	Ongoing drought and unseasonably hot weather have warmed and dried up the waters that endangered Chinook salmon rely on.
0:47.9	Negotiations between the state water resources control board and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation approved a plan for managing water levels,
0:54.7	but it could prove disastrous for the salmon spawning season. So here to explain to us how we got
1:00.7	into this predicament and how we might get ourselves and the fish back out are Tara Duggan.
1:05.8	She's a staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle who's been covering salmon for a while.
1:10.2	Welcome to the show, Tara.
1:13.3	Good morning. It's great to be here.
1:14.8	Thanks for having you.
1:15.7	Thanks for coming on.
1:16.7	And we also have Howard Brown, a policy advisor with NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency
1:21.1	responsible for managing the nation's marine fisheries.
1:24.2	Welcome, Howard.
1:26.1	Thanks.
	...

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