[env-trinity] Re: Low Flows on Klamath River Result in Disease Outbreak

[Tom Stokely]

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Have a great long weekend everybody.

TS
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Bacher" <danielbacher at hotmail.com>
To: <tstokely at trinityalps.net>; <env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>;
<salmon at pelicannetwork.net>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 11:51 AM
Subject: Low Flows on Klamath River Result in Disease Outbreak


> Low Flows on Klamath River Result In Outbreak Of Disease
>
> by Dan Bacher
>
> An outbreak of disease in migrating wild salmon smolts on the Klamath
River
> has led tribal, state and federal fishery biologists to fear yet another
> major juvenile fish kill on the Klamath River this spring.
>
> Lower than normal releases from Iron Gate Dam have resulted in water
> temperatures already up to 63 degrees in the Klamath below the dam. The
low,
> warm flows are the result of the Bureau of Reclamation downgrading the
water
> year type from a "below average" to a "dry year." This reclassification
will
> reduce the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the
> Klamath River and National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife.
>
> "We are finding a high incidence of Ceratomyxa Shasta disease - 50 to 80
> percent - in the rotary fish traps that we operate on the Klamath at Happy
> Camp and above the mouth of the Salmon River," reported Toz Soto, lead
> fisheries biologist of the Karuk Tribe.
>
> C. Shasta is a disease endemic to the river that has been responsible for
> past juvenile fish kills on the river. The disease becomes an epidemic
when
> the fish get stressed in low, warm conditions.
> The Bureau recently dropped Iron Gate releases from 1800 cfs to 1500 cfs
> after the irrigation season began in the Klamath Basin. At the same time,
> agriculture is also diverting water from the Shasta and Scott rivers,
major
> tributaries of the Klamath that have been beset with salmon and steelhead
> kills in recent years.
>
> "The colder than normal weather has also diminished the snowmelt," said
> Soto. "The releases are well below the 50 year average - normally the
flows
> would be 500 cfs more this time of year."
>
> Steve Pedery, Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon, noted that the
> Bureau's move comes after large water deliveries were promised to
irrigators
> within the Project, as was done in previous years.
>
> "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," said Pedery.
>
> Based on the high incidence of diseased fish, Soto believes that many have
> probably already perished before making it down to Somes Bar. The Klamath
is
> unique in that the water quality improves as the river courses downriver
and
> receives water from more pristine tributaries like the Salmon River,
Indian
> Creek and Clear Creek. The water released from Iron Gate is nutrient-rich,
> having received irrigation runoff from the farms of the Klamath Basin.
>
> "The water quality in the main stem above the mouth of the Scott is really
> poor," he stated. "If we had better management on the Klamath, we would at
> least see a lower incidence of disease. We're looking at the results of
> poor water management; the same old story as in previous years."
>
> There is still much to be learned about the disease. It isn't found in
> pristine tributaries like the Salmon River, Indian Creek and Elk Creek,
only
> in the main strem Klamath and the Shasta River. It is believed that the
> disease finds an intermediate host - a polychaete worm - in the riverine
> areas of reservoirs like Iron Gate and Copco, according to Soto.
>
> "There is a yearly chronic fish kill on the river," added Soto. "It
probably
> is a natural thing for some mortality to occur, but the current water
> management is definitely having an impact. We are hoping that we don't
find
> hundreds of thousands of dead salmon in the pools downriver next month
like
> we did in the spring of 2000."
>
> To date, the tribe hasn't observed hatchery fish in the traps. The Iron
Gate
> Fish Hatchery released a total of 3 million juvenile salmon into the river
> on May 13, 20 and 24. They plan to release approximately 2 million more
fish
> in coming weeks, according to Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish
> Hatchery.
>
> The Bureau of Reclamation recently offered to pay the Department of Fish
and
> Game $65,000 to to delay the release of the fish, along with advising them
> to release the fish downriver, according to an article in the Klamath
Falls
> Oregon. Herald and News on May 20.
>
> However, Rushton said the hatchery is already planning to raise 900,000
fish
> to yearling size at Iron Gate as part of a program instigated in 1979.
This
> will be 180,000 yearlings less than the DFG released last year, since the
> Fall Creek hatchery where the additional fish were raised has been shut
down
> because of state budget cutbacks. He was not sure at press time whether
> funding for the yearlings would come from the state or federal
governments.
>
> These yearlings will be released into the main stem of the Klamath in
> mid-November, when water conditions are cold and much more conducive to
> survival. "The survival rate of these fish is 3 to 4 times that of smolts
> released in the spring," said Rushton.
>
> The outlook for salmon survival this year isn't looking good under the
> current river management regime. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001
> changed the policy to favor agribusiness over fish after Klamath Basin
> farmers protested the cut-off of irrigation water. Bush political adviser
> Karl Rove engineered the policy change in an effort to curry agribusiness
> support for the re-election of an Oregon Republican Senator.
>
> The result was a series of juvenile fish die-offs and the Klamath adult
> chinook fish kill of September 2002, the largest fish kill in U.S.
history.
> The crisis that juvenile salmon now suffer in the Klamath River is a
> political one that requires a political solution - better long term,
> sustainable management of the Klamath watershed for fish and wildlife.
>
> "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," said Pedery. "The Trinity joins
> the Klamath a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region
where
> fish are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream."
>
>