"Drought-Stricken Streams Threaten Calif. Salmon"

"SAN GERONIMO, Calif. -- California's third year of drought has worsened the already dire outlook for endangered coho salmon, as coastal creeks used for spawning dwindle into disconnected pools where fish get trapped and die.

On a hot summer afternoon about 40 miles north of San Francisco, a group armed with fishing nets and buckets was on a rescue mission. They slogged through muddy pools, the last vestiges of once-flowing Arroyo Creek, trying to find stranded coho and threatened steelhead trout.

So far this summer, these fish rescuers in Marin County have found no coho, an ominous sign for a species struggling to survive on the West Coast."

Jason Dearen reports for the Associated Press September 6, 2009.