[env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish Kill
Anita M Andazola
aandazola at fs.fed.us
Mon May 24 18:45:43 PDT 2004
C. shasta has been found in Trinity fish, but not to the degree that
plagues the Klamath.
(See attached file: C.shasta.pdf)
Anita Andazola, Fish biologist
Lower Trinity Ranger District, Six Rivers National Forest
580 Highway 96, P.O. Box 68
Willow Creek, CA 95573
Office: 530.629.2118 x 319
FAX: 530.629.2102
"Our lives teach us who we are."
Salman Rushdie
"Tom Stokely"
<tstokely at trinityalps.net> To: "env-trinity" <env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>
Sent by: cc:
env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn. Subject: [env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish Kill
davis.ca.us
05/24/2004 02:42 PM
To: Env-trinity
Tim McKay did some sleuthing through Tribal and State biologists and found
that there are indeed reports of a juvenile fish kill somewhere between
Bauer Creek and the Scott River. The likely culprit is Ceratomyxa shasta,
an endemic parasite to the Klamath River which allegedly has a polychaete
worm as an intermediate host, and a somewhat complicated life history. As
I recall, C. shasta doesn't exist in the Trinity River. In any case,
additional flows from the Trinity River do not sound like they are a viable
solution to the problem because the fish kill is upstream of the Trinity
confluence. If anybody has any url references to C. Shasta or any other
information, please pass it on through this list. There is much
speculation about the cause of the outbreak of C. shasta as it relates to
water quality, but I have seen nothing definitive.
Below is an interesting perspective on the fish kill and water conditions
in the Klamath River from Waterwatch of Oregon.
Sincerely,
Tom Stokely
\*****************************************************************************************************
Posted by Steve Pedery:
Hi folks,
Concern is growing over the potential for another Klamath River fish kill
this spring and summer. Sick and dying fish have been reported in the
mid-Klamath region, and the Bureau of Reclamation is now offering hatchery
managers money to keep young salmon out of the river during the lethal
low-flow conditions that are expected this summer. A press release on the
potential fish kill is attached to this message as a Microsoft Word
document, and pasted into this message below.
PRESS RELEASE
May 20, 2004 Contact: Steve Pedery, (503) 295-4039, ext. 26
Low Water Flows, Disease Hammer Klamath Salmon, Bureau Offers $$ to Delay
Hatchery Releases
Portland--With concerns that yet another juvenile salmon kill may be
beginning on the Klamath River, the US Bureau of Reclamation has contacted
local fish hatchery managers offering cash in exchange for delaying their
releases of young salmon. The Bureau is also suggesting that managers
release their fish into the river further downstream than normal in order
to avoid the fish-killing low flow conditions that will affect the river
this summer.
Details on the Bureau’s efforts to delay the release of young salmon from
the Iron Gate Dam fish hatchery, or move the release to a point further
downstream than normal, were reported in today’s (May 20th) Klamath Herald
and News newspaper. The Bureau has offered hatchery managers $65,000 to
delay the release of young fish until the fall, when flow conditions in the
river will finally improve.
“Call me a radical, but I think fish need water,” said Steve Pedery,
Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon. “Rather than pay fish
hatcheries to keep salmon out of the river this summer, perhaps we ought to
consider leaving more water in it.”
Biologists and survey crews from Klamath Basin Native American Tribes have
begun work to document disease outbreaks in the mid-Klamath River, in an
area running from approximately Iron Gate Dam down to the Scott and Shasta
Rivers. In this region water releases from the Bureau of Reclamation’s
massive Klamath Irrigation Project are the primary source of flow. The
size and severity of the current problem is not yet known, but kills of
juvenile salmon have unfortunately become the norm on the Klamath River in
recent years.
Two weeks ago the Bureau announced that it was once again downgrading the
water year classification for the Klamath Basin, a move which would reduce
the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the Klamath
River and area National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. As in
previous years, the Bureau’s move comes after large water deliveries were
promised to irrigators within the Project. Under the new flow management
regime, Klamath salmon will face similar flows to those of 2002--a year
when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed in the spring and over 34,000
adult salmon were killed in the fall by low flows and disease.
“Delaying the release of hatchery fish, or moving them downstream, might
avoid the embarrassment of another major fish kill,” continued Pedery.
“Unfortunately the wild salmon and steelhead of the Klamath River will
still be left to face lethal low-flow conditions this summer.”
The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid-Klamath region highlight
the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are
the primary source of the Klamath’s woes. The Trinity joins the Klamath
River a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where fish
are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream.
For more information on the environmental crisis in the Klamath Basin,
visit www.onrc.org or www.waterwatch.org.
-30-
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