Smolt Migration Update Looking Positive

By May 7, 2023June 6th, 2023California, Coho Salmon, Salmon

It has been an amazing season so far for smolt migration out of the San Geronimo Creek Watershed and the Lagunitas Watershed as a whole. We’re close to a total of 850 coho smolts so far, since monitoring began 3 weeks ago. Typically we continue monitoring until mid to late May. 

The coho smolts are heading out to the ocean, after spending 1.5 years, half of their life, in the freshwater creek. Monitoring them at this life stage allows us to gather information on how they are looking, size and weight, and give us a population estimate on how many of them were able to survive this past wet winter and now make it out to sea. 

We’re very excited to get word on the overall count at the end of the season, because it’s looking like an impressive count–with multiple thousands of coho smolts leaving Lagunitas and Olema creeks towards Tomales Bay!

Watch our latest SPAWN in the Field video below!