As part of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program, routine year-round monitoring of fish throughout their lifecycle is conducted in the Restoration Area.
Following spawning, rotary screw traps — large, conical strainer-like devices — are installed in key locations of the upper Restoration Area in order to sample the number of juveniles naturally spawned in the system. Below is a video of Program field crews conducting redd and carcass surveys by kayak and installing a rotary screw trap in Reach 1 of the San Joaquin River.
The Program also monitors for adult returns, typically occurring during in the April-June timeframe. The Program deploys fyke traps and nets to intercept returning adults for trap and haul to Reach 1 for summer holding and fall spawning. The traps and nets are deployed in key locations in the lower reaches. Any captured adult-spring run are scanned for a coded-wire tag to determine if they are Program-origin fish, weighed and measured, tagged with an acoustic telemetry tags. The fish are then trapped and hauled in tank-mounted trucks to Reach 1 and released to spawn.
