"Californian Drought Could Wipe Out Southernmost Coho Salmon Group"

"California's three-year drought threatens to wipe out the last of the Muir Woods coho salmon that make their way each year from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in a freshwater creek running through the redwoods near San Francisco, state officials said on Monday.

As the annual salmon migration reaches its peak in streams through the northern part of the state, those in Redwood Creek, the southernmost home for returning coho salmon, are on the verge of local extinction, officials said. About 100 juvenile salmon found trapped in the drought-lowered creek are now being raised at a local hatchery.

'We just have to wait and see how the fish mature in the hatchery and what the environmental conditions look like next winter,' said Manfred Kittel, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's regional coho salmon recovery coordinator. 'The plan theoretically is to put them back in the creek hoping there is enough water to support them.'"

Michael Fleeman reports for Reuters December 2, 2014.