Giant chinook quite a find given poor salmon runs
This is not a year when you would expect to find a monster chinook salmon in California waters. The salmon runs have been so bad that the commercial and recreational chinook catch was canceled off the California and Oregon coast in spring.
But when state Department of Fish and Game biologists conducted their survey of fall-run chinook last month, they came across the carcass of one of the largest chinook ever recorded in California. The fish, which had died of natural causes as part of the spawning cycle, was found in lower Battle Creek near Red Bluff, in Northern California.
Based on its measurements (51 inches long), biologists estimated that the fish's live weight could have surpassed the state record, an 88-pound chinook caught in the Sacramento River.
Salmon counted in the fall surveys typically weigh 20 to 30 pounds.
Fishery biologists are keeping their fingers crossed that the giant -- thought to be about 6 years old -- was a successful spawner.
-- Bettina Boxall
California climate disruption costs
Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires. Climate change in California could be expensive.
Now the costs of global warming's projected effects in the nation's largest state have been quantified.
According to a new report, "California Climate Risk and Response," by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst, about $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires, with a projected annual price tag of $300 million to $3.9 billion.
That's a big spread in estimated damages: The final number will depend on how much the earth warms under various scenarios and whether nations commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions under a global warming treaty to be negotiated next year.
"This is a good review of existing studies," said Anthony Brunello, a California Resources Agency official. "It assesses the real, comprehensive statewide impacts for the first time."
Brunello and other California officials are busy planning a comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy to commit the state to concrete prevention measures.
Six task forces covering biodiversity and habitat, infrastructure, oceans and coastal resources, public health, water, and forestry and agriculture will release adaptation strategies for public comment next month.
