Cycle of life: Lodi students get close-up look at the salmon run
Jan. 11—The students in Brooke Shamhart's fifth-grade class at Reese Elementary School crowded around the small aquarium at the back of the room Thursday morning in anticipation of watching a handful of juvenile salmon get settled into their new home.
Shamhart carefully held about a dozen small pink-colored eggs over the tank, then slowly deposited them into water where they sunk to the aquarium floor.
The ceremony is part of a collaboration between the cities of Lodi and Stockton, San Joaquin County Public Works, Save the Delta, San Joaquin County Office of Education, and the upper Mokelumne Watershed Stewardship Through Learning Council to deliver a total of 112 egg bundles to 60 classrooms all across the region.
Over the next few weeks, students in grades 2 through 8 will be observing the Chinook salmon eggs from the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery, which will hatch in the classrooms.
The juvenile salmon will then live off their yolk sacks before students return them to a spot just downstream of their place of origin on the river.
This is the third year Shamhart has participated in the program, which includes a visit from City of Lodi watershed stewardship director Kathy Grant and EBMUD community affairs representative Mary Campbell.
"This is such a fantastic experience for these kids because (Grant and Campbell) are really like our experts," Shamhart said. "They're coming in with their expertise that maybe I don't have. It's someone to look up to for them and its a good experience to see where the eggs are dropped in."
Shamhart said her students are always excited to participate in the stewardship program, given they've seen the egg deliveries as second, third and fourth-graders. As many as three days a week is spent on studying the life-cycle of salmon, as well as stewardship and conservation efforts.
"We've been building up all day, reading about the life cycle and everything to do with salmon," she said. "I make a Youtube video of the experience every year, so they get to see what previous years looked like, and then they know what's coming for them."
Monitoring the eggs in the classroom is particularly special for students this year, as EBMUD reported that the 2024-25 fall run of Chinook salmon currently underway on the Mokelumne River has set a new record for the second year in a row.
More than 30,000 fish have been counted to date in the river, with hundreds more arriving daily from the Pacific Ocean to spawn.
It's the largest salmon return on the Mokelumne since record keeping began in 1940, surpassing the record-setting 2023-24 total count of 28,698 Chinook, with several weeks still left to go in this spawning season.
"I'm proud of EBMUD's decades-long dedication to sustaining the health of the Mokelumne River habitat and investing in fish hatchery operations," EBMUD Board President Lesa McIntosh said. "This historic salmon run is a testament to our science-driven management, cooperative relationships with neighbors on the river, and our collaboration with local, state and federal partners to enhance spawning grounds, operate our hatchery effectively, and protect vital natural resources."
Salmon returns are counted every year during the spawning season, which typically runs from September to January.
In October, EBMUD biologists recorded the passage of 3,824 migrating fish, the largest one-day salmon count in more than 30 years. Passage is measured as salmon pass through a fish ladder at a small irrigation impoundment owned by Woodbridge Irrigation District.
"We are excited to have another robust salmon return that allows us to support all our hatchery goals, including mitigation, enhancement and climate resilience, as well as meet our in-river spawning targets with enough fish to fill the habitat," EBMUD Manager of Fisheries and Wildlife Michelle Workman said. "We continue to face the challenge of climate variability with record air temperatures in July and October affecting our cold-water availability strategies. Our investments in chillers for the hatchery enable us to support the Chinook population even when environmental conditions work against us. This year we are fortunate to have enough returning fish to also support Coleman National Fish Hatchery with eggs to help sustain the fishery on the Sacramento River and the broader Central Valley."
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Originally created within the California Department of Natural Resources and later placed with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, WCB is a separate and independent Board with authority and funding to carry out an acquisition and development program for wildlife conservation. More information at California State Coastal ConservancyThe Coastal Conservancy is a non-regulatory state agency that works with others along the California coast, in coastal watersheds, and in the San Francisco Bay Area to protect and restore coastal resources, to help people get to and enjoy the coast, and to enhance climate resilience. Our vision is of a beautiful, restored, and accessible coast for current and future Californians. More information at Media Contacts: Yurok Tribe - Matt Mais, (707) 954-0976, mmais@ Western Rivers Conservancy - Andie Davis, (415) 766-8355, WesternRivers@ Wildlife Conservation Board - Mark Topping, (916) 539-4673, Coastal Conservancy - Taylor Samuelson, (510) 286-4182, Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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Low flow blues: springer fishing made tougher by below-average flows on Clearwater River
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