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<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Salmon
count down; Low tally reels in the attention of scientists<?xml:namespace prefix
= o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Redding
Record-Searchlight – 1/26/06<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By
Dylan Darling, staff writer<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Fall
salmon spawning numbers on the Salmon River, about three hours northwest of
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Redding</st1:City></st1:place>, could
set a new low for the second consecutive year, according to calculations by the
California Department of Fish and Game. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The
numbers won’t be final until March, but early estimates are that only 320
fall-run chinook made it to the spawning beds of the Salmon, a tributary of the
<st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>, last fall.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">In
comparison, 6,000 salmon returned to the <st1:place w:st="on">Salmon
River</st1:place> in 1997 — the highest number recorded since 1978, the first
year records were kept. The fall 2004 run on the tributary, which originates in
the Trinity Alps and empties into the Klamath north of <st1:City
w:st="on">Orleans</st1:City> in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Humboldt</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, saw only 333 salmon.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">What’s
causing the low numbers? <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">"We’re not
exactly sure," said Sara Borok, a fisheries biologist with Fish and Game who
heads up the <st1:place w:st="on">Salmon River</st1:place> count.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Possibilities
include adult and juvenile fish kills in recent years, warm river water and poor
ocean conditions. In addition, inclement weather that rained out some salmon
surveys could have contributed to the low tally. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Although
fall 2005 numbers for waterways that feed the Klamath other than the Salmon were
higher than they were in 2004, they look to be low enough that there will be a
limited sport and commercial harvest in the Klamath watershed this year, Borok
said. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The
<st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> has averaged 107,000 fall-run
chinook in the more than 20 years records have been kept.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The
numbers are higher in the upper <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">River
basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. According to Doug Killam, a fisheries
biologist in Red Bluff, about 272,000 chinook came back to spawn in the fall,
about 100,000 more than the average from 1996 and 2004.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Twice
weekly, from October into December, scientists from Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and members of tribes living in the vicinity wade through
the chilly waters of the <st1:place w:st="on">Salmon River</st1:place> looking
for salmon carcasses. Last fall, about 20 volunteers joined them, including
students from Yreka, Mount Shasta and Forks of Salmon schools.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">"It’s
rather labor intensive," Borok said. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">To get the
estimates, scientists and volunteers mark carcasses of spawned out salmon found
along the river during each sweep. A combination of those numbers and counts of
salmon egg beds goes into the formula that leads to the run estimate.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The
diminished run numbers on the Salmon came as a disappointment to Nat Pennington,
fisheries program coordinator for the Salmon River Restoration Council, a
nonprofit group that has been working to improve the river for salmon since
1992. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><STRONG><U>"We
can fix our river all we want, but if they don’t do something about the
Klamath," then the numbers will continue to drop, he said.
<o:p></o:p></U></STRONG></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Federal
and state officials have been in talks with stakeholders for years trying to
find ways to make the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> more
hospitable to salmon. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Talk of
salmon on the Klamath River inevitably brings up images of September 2002’s fish
kill, when an estimated 33,000 adult salmon went belly up on the lower portion
of the river after freshwater pathogens bred in warm, crowded waters.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Of late,
scientists have been focusing on a different culprit, Ceratomyxa shasta, or C
shasta, a parasite that causes infections in salmons’ intestines. It has been
killing young salmon headed through the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place> system and out to sea the past several years. Millions of
small salmon make the swim and mortality estimates have been in the hundred of
thousands, but it is hard to be exact. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">"There is
no good way to get a handle on them because they are so small," Borok said.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The C
shasta parasite spends part of its life cycle in tiny worms that nestle in algae
and sand along the river. With the wet winter so far, the same high water that
vexed surveyors on the <st1:place w:st="on">Salmon River</st1:place> could help
flush the parasite out of the system and lead to a boost in salmon numbers in
coming years. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">If the
weather turns dry, C shasta could be as thick as it has been over the past
several years. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">"We don’t
know the effects of the water conditions until later this year when the fish
start migrating out," said Jerri Bartholomew, an assistant professor at
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oregon</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>’s Center for Fish Disease
Research. "A lot depends on what we have from now until then."
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><A
href="http://www.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_4417054,00.html">http://www.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_4417054,00.html</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>