[env-trinity] AP's Don Thompson on Klamath Fish

[Byron]

Estimate of Klamath fish kill could double

Associated Press - 7/31/04

By Don Thompson, staff writer

SACRAMENTO -- The massive 2002 Klamath River fish kill, already counted as
one of the nation's largest, could have killed twice as many fish as
previously projected, the California Department of Fish and Game said
Friday. 

Commercial fishermen said the larger projected kill could do even more harm
to their industry next year, as the offspring of that fall's salmon run
begin to return upstream from the ocean. They complained conditions this
year could spark a repeat of the disaster. 

"Maybe as much as half the run died in one fell swoop," said Steve Pedery of
the Oregon Natural Resources Council. 

The federal Bureau of Reclamation said it is prepared to release more water
as needed this summer to avert another fish kill, and questioned the new
higher kill estimate. 

The previous fish-kill estimate of 34,056 fish was "conservative," the
department said in its final report on the incident: "Actual losses may have
been more than double that number." 

"We're two years later. How do we know that?" countered Reclamation
spokesman Jeff McCracken. 

The state report blamed near-record-low river flow for concentrating
returning fall-run chinook salmon near the mouth of the river, where they
were susceptible to bacterial infections. 

The result was "unprecedented" for the Klamath River and perhaps the largest
salmon kill ever recorded on the West Coast, said report co-author Steve
Turek, a senior state environmental scientist. 

Like other major kills on Oregon's Rogue River, California's Butte Creek,
and British Columbia's Babine and Frasier rivers, the fatal combination
seems to be lots of fish, not enough water, warm water temperatures and the
presence of disease, the department found. 

Ironically, the fall run was larger than average that year, helping lead to
the die-off that now threatens fishermen's limits. 

"Not many fish are coming back. Now we know why," said Glen Spain, regional
director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. 

That will mean record low salmon runs next year and devastating losses for
commercial fishermen up and down the West Coast, Spain said. His
organization earlier this month asked President Bush for economic disaster
relief for losses it said could run to hundreds of millions of dollars for
fishing communities from Fort Bragg north to Coos Bay, Ore. 

Spain contended the federal government is creating the same conditions again
this year by releasing too little and too warm water from the Klamath Basin,
leading to "a perpetual drought on the lower river" to save irrigation water
for farmers upstream. 

But McCracken said the government released sufficient water from the
tributary Trinity River last year to avoid another Klamath fish kill, and is
prepared to do the same this year if necessary.

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

 

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