RIGHT: Of the estimated 16,000 spring-run Chinooks that made the journey from the Golden Gate Bridge to creeks across the Central Valley, about 14,500 have died, nearly all of them before spawning. LEFT: With decreased water levels and warmer temperatures, rivers and creeks have lower oxygen content, which weakens and kills the fish before they spawn. Of the estimated 16,000 spring-run Chinooks that made the journey from the Golden Gate Bridge to creeks across the Central Valley, about 14,500 have died, nearly all of them before spawning. With decreased water levels and warmer temperatures, rivers and creeks have lower oxygen content, which weakens and kills the fish before they spawn. It is the result of the creek’s low flow, which speeds up the spread of disease as the water stagnates, and of the Central Valley’s high heat in the depths of drought. The creek is simply too warm, an astounding 10 degrees warmer than average in some parts of these spawning grounds. What once was a place where life began is now one of untimely death. Then they would lay eggs and, finally, perish to complete one of nature’s most improbable life cycles. In a year with severe drought and record high heat in the West, many dead Chinook salmon have been found decomposing on the shores of the Butte Creek in Chico, Calif.įor centuries, spring-run Chinook salmon, among California’s most iconic fish, would rest for weeks in these historically cold waters after their brutal upstream journey. It is the stench from piles of rotting Chinook salmon carcasses on the creek banks and from the upside-down bodies of others snagged, already dead, on the creek’s pale rocks. The name doesn’t seem to fit this quiet place set above a gentle swerve in Butte Creek, just an old span of bridge, some rusted-out mining equipment manufactured before this state was officially a state, and a seldom-used house.īut the harsh reality becomes apparent quickly, a smell on a hot, thin wind.
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