Genetic rescue can help declining Russian River coho, study finds; habitat restoration still needed
At the turn of the century, the plight of coho salmon on the Russian River was severe — so severe that the Russian River Coho Salmon Captive Broodstock Program was initiated in 2001 to prevent extirpation (or localized extinction) of coho in the river. Scientists at the Broodstock Program at Don Clausen Fish Hatchery in Sonoma County have worked to pull the fish back from the brink in the decades since, with the eventual goal of re-establishing self-sustaining salmon runs in the watershed. A new study published in Conservation Letters offers genetic rescue — a captive breeding intervention that crosses an at-risk species’ population with the same species from another geographic area — as a viable method to keep Russian River coho salmon from disappearing.
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