Eel River (California)

The Eel River is a major river, about 196 miles (315 km) long, in northwestern California. The river and its tributaries form the third-largest watershed entirely in California, draining a rugged area of 3,684 square miles (9,540 km2) in five counties.

The river flows generally northward through the Coast Ranges west of the Sacramento Valley, emptying into the Pacific Ocean about 10 miles (16 km) downstream from Fortuna and just south of Humboldt Bay. The river provides groundwater recharge, recreation, and industrial, agricultural and municipal water supply.

The Eel River supports runs of multiple anadromous fishes: Chinook, coho salmon, steelhead (rainbow trout) and coastal cutthroat trout among the major species. In its natural state, it was the third-largest salmon- and steelhead-producing river system in California, with over a million fish spawning annually, after the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. The annual chinook salmon run was estimated at 100,000–800,000, coho at 50,000–100,000, and steelhead may have numbered as high as 100,000–150,000.