DELUGE BRINGS WAVES OF FISH.Byline: Jane Kay San Francisco Examiner The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th Century. History 19th century The beginning of the Examiner is a topic of some controversy. The heavy rains driving humans to high ground are bringing waves of salmon, steelhead trout and other fish into San Francisco area creeks and rivers. Three years of wet winters along with creek restoration projects and pollution curbs have produced the best conditions in two decades. Chinook Chinook, indigenous people of North America Chinook (shĭn  k`, chĭ–), Native American tribe of the Penutian linguistic stock. , or Pacific king salmon, are spawning in Walnut and Alameda creeks. Rainbow trout rainbow troutSpecies (Oncorhynchus mykiss) of fish in the salmon family (Salmonidae) noted for spectacular leaps and hard fighting when hooked. It has been introduced from western North America to many other countries. are swimming in Strawberry and Pinole creeks, and small striped bass cluster in Berkeley's flatlands
Flatlands is a type of terrain similar to savanna and grassland. in Codornices Creek. In downtown San Jose Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, United States. The area is generally located north of Interstate 280 and east of Guadalupe Parkway, which roughly parallels Guadalupe River. , an estimated 1,000 chinook salmon chinook salmon or king salmon Prized North Pacific food and sport fish (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) of the salmon family. The average weight is about 22 lbs (10 kg), but individuals of 50–80 lbs (22–36 kg) are not unusual. have already arrived this season in Guadalupe Creek to spawn in the river bordered by highrises. ``The conditions are getting better because of the rains,'' said Roger Castillo, who's been watching the chinook since 1984 and caught his first Guadalupe chinook in 1992 to prove to his friends that they were there. ``We're seeing the fish rebound from the drought,'' said Carl Wilcox, environmental services supervisor at state Fish and Game in Yountville. Robert Leidy, a wetlands scientist in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and in San Francisco, agrees that rainfall over the past three years has benefited both chinook and steelhead. ``The fish are in the Bay in the fall,'' Leidy said. ``When the rain comes, it sends freshwater plumes into the Bay. That attracts the fish to the streams. On Wildcat Creek in Contra Costa County, Ann Riley helped carry buckets full of freshwater rainbow trout to repopulate the stream a decade ago. Two months ago, she helped clear cattails and silt from the mouth of the creek, giving the fish an avenue out to the Bay. If they make it - and become ocean-going steelhead - it would mark the first time in nearly a century that the creek supported a wild run. ``We just finished restoring the creek in November,'' Riley said. ``It's possible that this would be the first year in 100 years that we might see the return of steelhead. Now that would be pretty exciting.'' |
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