San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science

This monograph presents an extensive review of the biology and management of Chinook salmon and steelhead in the Central Valley of California. Relevant data and publications on these populations are summarized and discussed in the context of the wider professional literature, with emphasis on the importance of evolutionary considerations in the assessment of populations and in their management, the need to manage populations together with their environments, and the contradiction between maintaining a major hatchery program to support a mixed-stock ocean fishery and trying to maintain or restore populations adapted to natural or semi-natural habitats. Recommendations are presented for management and monitoring—for example for a thorough review of hatchery operations, for more emphasis on monitoring individual-based factors such the physiological condition and growth rates of juveniles, and for simulation of major restoration actions and monitoring programs. The 17 chapters cover major conceptsin salmon biology and conceptual foundations for management, and Central Valley Chinook and steelhead populations and their habitat, growth and migration, habitat use, harvest, hatcheries, modeling, monitoring, and management.