SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Researchers have released 50,000 salmon into a flooded rice field in the Sacramento Valley, as they try to determine whether such fields, flooded between harvests, can stand in for the wetlands that once filled the area and served as a massive nursery for juvenile salmon.
The Sacramento Bee reported (http://bit.ly/VKkJsP ) that the fish were released into a 20-acre rice field on Tuesday by researchers from University of California, Davis, the California Department of Water Resources and a nonprofit group.
Scientists hope to learn whether a rice field can replicate the Central Valley wetlands that were once a key habitat for Central Valley salmon.
The fish were released in an area known as the Yolo Bypass, which was created to divert floodwaters from Sacramento.
Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com