Salmon Enhancement was founded in 1984 to enhance the commercial and recreational Chinook salmon fishery. Our founders, a group of local fishermen, dedicated themselves to improving local salmon fishing by raising and releasing juvenile salmon into Avila Bay through a net-pen rearing project. With their own money and lots of sweat equity, these dedicated fishermen released their first batch of salmon in 1986. Since then, we have continued to operate this valuable project and have released more than 1.5 million Chinook salmon into our local ocean.
As our organization has grown, as politics have changed and as the impact of humanity on natural resources has become more and more evident, our organization has expanded its efforts in the world of fisheries recovery. While we continue to believe that stock enhancement is an important piece of ensuring salmon fishing into the future, it is merely a bandage on a much bigger problem. To truly recover, we need to also explore the root causes of declining salmon and steelhead trout populations; we need to find ways to remedy these problems; and we need to educate our community in order to ensure that recovered fisheries are never again put at risk.
Specifically, Salmon Enhancement is in business to increase the fish population in our local streams and ocean waters using three intertwined approaches:

1. Stock Enhancement
2. Watershed Restoration
3. Community Education