Researchers have been tracking a record number of salmon running up Putah Creek this fall.
The creek runs from the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area up to Lake Berryessa. UC Davis fish biologist Peter Moyle says this year, the fall-run Chinook salmon numbers jumped to an estimated 1,500 — up from 700 last year.
He believes most of the salmon are hatchery fish that had to be released near the ocean because of the drought.
He says when these fish come back to the Sacramento Delta, some of them do not know which waterway to swim up.
"So these fish, basically, once they get up here, even if they don't have that map imprinted on their brains, they do follow the water," Moyle says.
Moyle credits the Solano County Water Agency and community groups with managing the creek in a way that has created favorable flows for the salmon.
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