Giant chinook quite a find given poor salmon runs

This is not a year when you would expect to find a monster chinook salmon in California waters. The salmon runs have been so bad that the commercial and recreational chinook catch was canceled off the California and Oregon coast in spring.

But when state Department of Fish and Game biologists conducted their survey of fall-run chinook last month, they came across the carcass of one of the largest chinook ever recorded in California. The fish, which had died of natural causes as part of the spawning cycle, was found in lower Battle Creek near Red Bluff, in Northern California.

Based on its measurements (51 inches long), biologists estimated that the fish’s live weight could have surpassed the state record, an 88-pound chinook caught in the Sacramento River.

Salmon counted in the fall surveys typically weigh 20 to 30 pounds.

Fishery biologists are keeping their fingers crossed that the giant -- thought to be about 6 years old -- was a successful spawner.

-- Bettina Boxall

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California climate disruption costs

Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires. Climate change in California could be expensive.

Now the costs of global warming’s projected effects in the nation’s largest state have been quantified.

According to a new report, “California Climate Risk and Response,” by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst, about $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires, with a projected annual price tag of $300 million to $3.9 billion.

That’s a big spread in estimated damages: The final number will depend on how much the earth warms under various scenarios and whether nations commit to slashing greenhouse gas emissions under a global warming treaty to be negotiated next year.

“This is a good review of existing studies,” said Anthony Brunello, a California Resources Agency official. “It assesses the real, comprehensive statewide impacts for the first time.”

Brunello and other California officials are busy planning a comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy to commit the state to concrete prevention measures.

Six task forces covering biodiversity and habitat, infrastructure, oceans and coastal resources, public health, water, and forestry and agriculture will release adaptation strategies for public comment next month.

“Our report makes clear the most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing,” said Roland-Holst. But he added, “This is not a doomsday report. . . . California can adapt, needs to adapt, and early action is cheaper than denial. . . . If we make the right investments, we can avert much of the damage in any scenario.”

California is also moving to adopt comprehensive regulations to slash its own greenhouse gas emissions to 15% below today’s level.

But that would only put a dent in the trajectory of climate change, unless dramatic measures are undertaken nationwide and across other continents, according to scientists.

-- Margot Roosevelt

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Watershed moments at aquarium

The newest exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is dedicated to local watersheds and to teaching concepts of water supply and use.

Unveiled at a news conference Wednesday, the shaded, $2.5-million outdoor exhibit, called “Our Watersheds: Pathway to the Pacific,” features a three-dimensional model of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel river systems and a carbon-neutral classroom -- the first building in Long Beach to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum certification, the highest “green” rating.

“California is facing a water crisis,” said Barbara Long, vice president of special projects at the aquarium, which is enjoying its seventh consecutive year of attendance increases, “so it is even more crucial for residents to learn about their watersheds and how their actions impact these systems and our water supply.”

The exhibit’s education programs for children and adults will focus on issues such as how trash in local streets can flow into local rivers, wetlands and coastal areas, and on the aquarium’s role in restoring the nearby Los Cerritos Wetlands and in studying the green sea turtles recently discovered in the San Gabriel River.

-- Louis Sahagun

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Greenspace is an occasional column on the California environment reported by The Times’ environmental staff.