Officials Pump Millions Of Salmon Fingerlings Into Sacramento River

ANDERSON, Shasta County (KPIX 5) -- For the first time in two years, the federal government is using a special quarter-mile-long pipe to release millions of baby Chinook salmon from a hatchery directly into the El Niño-swollen Sacramento River.

The Coleman Federal Hatchery near Red Bluff had been using trucks to deliver the fish to a location further downstream during the worst of the drought because of the low flow of water in the river.

"It's a big day," Bretty Galyean, the deputy project leader, said shortly after the first fish were released in a torrent of water that gushed from the pipe. "Today is kind of like graduation day. They get to go out and start another cycle of their life."

Hatchery officials have also tagged some of the salmon with tiny radio transmitters in order to track their migration.

"We'll be able to know how many of them survive between here and all the way out to the Golden Gate Bridge," said biologist Steve Zeug.