32 



DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME 



These silvers, averaging 11 to the pound, \\ere 

 reared at Darrah Springs Hatchery and planted in .Mill 

 Creek, Tehama County. Additional plants will be 

 made during the next two years in an effort to estab- 

 lish silver salmon in the Sacramento River. 



SCREENS AND LADDERS 



The department's fish screen and ladder program, 

 designed to protect runs of salmon and steelhead, re- 

 sulted in the construction of five fish ladders and 21 

 fish screens. The extreme floods of December, 1955, 

 also caused a large amount of repair and maintenance 

 work. 



There were three permanent crews involved in 

 screen and ladder work during the biennium. These 

 crews were headquartered at screen shops located at 

 Vreka, Red Bluff and Elk Grove. 



Among the five fish ladders constructed, two in- 

 volved major costs and engineering services. Both 

 were financed largely with \\'ildlife Conservation 

 Board funds. 



The new ladder constructed on the Mokelumne 

 River at the W'oodbridge Dam, San Joaquin Count\', 

 was completed in the spring of 1956 at a cost of more 

 than S3 1,000. 



TUNNEL LADDER 



A tunnel ladder constructed at Deer Creek Falls, 

 Tehama County, is the first of this t\"pe in California. 

 It has several advantages over conventional types in 

 circumventing natural barriers, such as waterfalls. It 

 is considerably less expensive to construct and equally 

 important, does not detract from the natural beauty 

 of an area. 



Considerable experimental work was conducted on 

 screens, including a combination air bubble-sound vi- 

 bration screen, as well as on new drive and cleanins 



Fish Hatchery Assistant Btvis Gunderson shows husky salmon tagged in 

 Trinity River census. 



^Fish and Game Photo^ 



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^Ck4 S<sU*tlCK 



A species of salmon new to the California com- 

 mercial fishery has recently been taken. Pink salmon, 

 usually found in Pacific waters from Washington to 

 Alaska, appeared in some numbers in the ocean off 

 California in 1953. They reappeared in greater num- 

 bers in 1955, when nearly 2,000 were landed from 

 Monterey to Crescent City. 



There is no minimum size specified for pink salmon 

 in California laws. Reportedly, fishermen released 

 many pinks less than 25 inches long (minimum size 

 for silver salmon). Those landed in 1955 averaged 7.6 

 pounds. 



Two groups of pink salmon occur ofF California. 

 One group south of Pt. Arena moves southward to- 

 ward the Golden Gate as the season progresses, while 

 simultaneously a second group north of Pf. Arena 

 moves northward into Oregon waters. In 1955 eight 

 pink salmon were caught by river gill netters during 

 August end September. Pink salmon were also ob- 

 served spawning in the Russian River in the fall of 

 1955. 



Pinks live to be two years old. Landings and spawn- 

 ing runs are characteristically large every other year. 

 A run of pinks should reappear in 1957. None were 

 observed in California waters during 1952 and only 

 a few were seen in 1954 and 1956. 



mechanisms. Table 47 in the appendix lists the streams 

 on which screens and ladders were constructed. 



The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation completed the 

 Tracy Fish Conservation Facility which emplo\s a 

 new concept in fish screening. It is a gigantic louver- 

 type structure which passes water and diverts the fish 

 into bypasses. The department acted in an advisory 

 capacity- on the project. If successful, the new louver 

 should annually save millions of bass and hundreds of 

 thousands of salmon. A similar type was tested in an 

 irrigation diversion from Deer Creek, Tehama County. 

 The results of this test were promising to the extent 

 that this new screen is expected to fill the needs of a 

 number of larger di\ersions. 



BARRIER REMOVAL 



The department removed 20 barriers which had 

 blocked 15 coastal streams during the biennium, thus 

 creating or improving accessibility to 81 miles of fish- 

 ing waters. 



Some of these barriers were formed by small log 

 jams and were removed at relativeh" small cost. Xo 

 major log jam removal projects w ere undertaken dur- 

 ing the biennium. 



Natural barriers created by rock slides or water- 

 falls were surmounted by complete removal of the 

 barrier, by the construction of a channel around the 

 barrier, or b\- building a series of small pool-forming 

 dams to decrease the distance between the top of the 

 barrier and the pool immediately below . 



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