Ghost-Hunting for Salmon and Steelhead in Santa Cruz [Video]

by Will Ware, CalTrout Bay Area Project Coordinator

May 2024

Ghosts of Past & Present

Monitoring salmon and steelhead is like ghost-hunting. Despite declining population numbers, these spawning salmonids still run in the memories of communities along coastal California streams. These fish support the livelihoods of diverse people including tribes, commercial fishers, and recreational fishing businesses. Claire Buchanan, Bay Area Senior Project Manager, captured the sentiment when she said “steelhead are like ghosts” as she described how they often migrate up and down creeks undetected under the cover of darkness and murky waters after storms. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, at the southern edge of where salmon spawn along the West Coast, sightings of critically endangered coho salmon are rare and sightings of threatened steelhead are even less frequent. Conservationists are working to conjure more of these fish back into the Santa Cruz Mountains.