The sound of endangered salmon surviving

Any day now, next time a storm sends a pulse of water down California’s Sacramento River, biologists at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery will release this year’s batch of winter-run Chinook salmon. Of the 400,000 4-inch-long salmon smolts they release, 570 will be emitting a coded sound from a tiny electrical device implanted in their bellies. They’ll beep all the way down the river and, for those lucky enough to make it, out to sea. Winter-run Chinook salmon are critically endangered. They are particularly vulnerable in times of drought, when water levels are low and river temperatures high. With California now in the fourth year of a historic drought — and the state is still in a drought, despite short-term relief from recent storms — winter-run Chinook salmon are in an extremely perilous state. Read the article here 07:11

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