Science activity

The State Water Project (SWP), operated by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), and the Central Valley Project (CVP), operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, export water out of the San Francisco Bay Delta for urban and agricultural use in California. Salvage of fish at both facilities is conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week at regular intervals. Since 1957, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) has salvaged fish at the Tracy Fish Collection Facility (TFCF). CDFW's Fish Facilities Unit, in cooperation with DWR, began salvaging fish at the Skinner Delta Fish Protective Facility (SDFPF) in 1968. Fish salvage and loss rates are used to determine the need for changes in operations in response to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regulatory requirements. Salvage and loss monitoring includes daily monitoring and reporting of estimated loss of salvaged fish, as well as monitoring and reporting of salvaged Coded Wired Tagged (CWT) hatchery fish. This information is widely used by West Coast fisheries agencies to collect information on natural and hatchery-reared stocks of salmon and steelhead. Our state-of-the-art genetic analysis techniques are used to quantify salvage rates of listed runs of California's Central Valley juvenile Chinook Salmon. We also utilize advanced genetic analysis techniques to identify different populations of Central Valley juvenile Chinook Salmon, and actively participate in development of new analysis methods.