North Coast Sees Surge In Fall Chinook Salmon Run

POTTER VALLEY (AP) -- State wildlife officials say a threatened species of salmon has completed its fall run to a Mendocino County dam in record numbers.

Department of Fish and Game biologist Scott Harris tells the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa that more than 2,300 chinook salmon have reached the Van Arsdale dam on the Eel River.

That number is up from just 500 salmon last year, and is the highest since the department began tracking chinook salmon runs in 1945.

California's salmon population has declined dramatically in recent years, prompting a ban on commercial fishing the past two seasons.

Fish and Game spokesman Harry Morse says salmon counts in the Sacramento River system are not yet complete. The river provides much of the fish found off the California and Oregon coasts.

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