West Marin’s creeks and tributaries yielded a healthy cohort of coho smolts this year, with a record-breaking 50,000 leaving the Lagunitas Creek watershed this spring. After spending their first year in their natal streams, the smolts’ real test begins as they try to survive in the open ocean, said Eric Ettlinger, an aquatic ecologist for Marin Water.
“It’s hard to know exactly what the factors are that lead to high survival [in creeks],” Mr. Ettlinger…