Klamath salmon advocates ask more water for fish

REDDING, Calif. (AP) – Interior Secretary Sally Jewell agreed to an impromptu meeting with salmon advocates demanding more water for salmon in Northern California's Klamath and Trinity rivers.

After the Tuesday meeting in Redding, California, salmon advocate Regina Chichizola said Jewell agreed to send someone to assess the situation, but made no promises.

Members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and others have been pressing the Obama administration to release more water from Lewiston Dam on the Trinity. The idea is that more water makes it harder for parasites to infect fall chinook returning to spawn. Disease killed tens of thousands of fish in 2002.

Faced with demands for more water than it has, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has said it would make emergency water releases once significant numbers of fish begin to die.