A vitamin deficiency likely killed as many as half of newly hatched fry of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River in 2020 and 2021. These  findings were published June 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Almost everywhere in California, salmon are on the decline. But in Putah Creek — a restored stream running through the University of California, Davis, campus — wild salmon are not only increasing, they also are completing their life cycle.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries biologists are pursuing urgent measures this fall to save some of the last remaining Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon after the numbers returning from the ocean this year fell sharply toward extinction.