<html>
<body>
<font color="#0000FF">Does any tagging, similar to the study below, occur
of <u>steelhead</u> juveniles from the Klamath and Trinity in order to
track survival through the Klamath estuary?<br><br>
</font>THE COLUMBIA BASIN BULLETIN:<br>
Weekly Fish and Wildlife News<br>
<a href="http://www.cbbulletin.com/" eudora="autourl">
www.cbbulletin.com<br>
</a>February 12, 2010<br>
Issue No. 519<br><br>
<b>Study Finds High Rate of Juvenile Steelhead Mortality in Rivers'
Estuaries<br><br>
</b>A new study by researchers at Oregon State University found that up
to nearly half of the ocean-bound juvenile steelhead surveyed in two
Oregon river systems appear to have died when they reached the estuaries
-- before they could reach the ocean.<br><br>
The scientists aren't sure if such a mortality rate in the estuary is
typical or elevated due to increased predation -- most likely by marine
mammals or seabirds. One goal of their research is to begin establishing
better baseline data on juvenile salmon and steelhead mortality so
resource managers can make more accurate predictions on runs of returning
adult fish.<br><br>
"A female steelhead may lay 2,000 to 5,000 eggs -- and in rare
cases, more than 10,000 eggs -- and for the population to remain stable,
at least 2-3 percent of the juveniles migrating to the ocean have to
survive and return as adults," said Carl Schreck, a professor of
fisheries and wildlife at OSU and leader of the Oregon Cooperative Fish
and Wildlife Research Unit on campus. "If you get much more than
that, it's a banner year.<br><br>
"But it's hard to predict adult returns if you don't have good data
on outgoing juveniles," Schreck said, "and this study is an
effort to make that monitoring more precise."<br><br>
Declining salmon and steelhead runs have been blamed on everything from
habitat loss through logging to housing developments on coastal rivers,
but the consensus has been that ocean conditions are perhaps the single
most important element in how robust the populations may be in a given
year.<br><br>
Yet the OSU study found that mortality is significant before the fish
even make it to the Pacific Ocean, said David Noakes, a professor of
fisheries and wildlife at OSU and one of the principal investigators in
the study.<br><br>
"Steelhead will live in the fresh water for one to two years and
then migrate out to the ocean where they'll spend another two or three
years," Noakes said. "If only 2-3 percent survive, it would be
interesting to know what the keys to survival may be for the select few.
Are the biggest juveniles more likely to survive? The fastest? Those that
have the fewest parasites? Is there something in their genetics that
better helps some of them adapt to the new saltwater
environment?<br><br>
"We need to determine what the so-called 'normal' predation rates
are in the estuary, and get a better handle on what is killing the
fish," he said.<br><br>
In their study, the OSU researchers inserted small ultrasonic
transmitters into 280 juvenile steelhead over a two-year period. The
dollar bill-sized fish were captured in traps at sites on the middle
stretches of the Alsea and Nehalem river systems, tagged and measured,
and then released back into the rivers and tracked on their way to the
ocean. About nine out of 10 fish made it safely from the release point to
tidewater, and then the ultrasound transmissions from 50 to 60 percent of
those survivors abruptly stopped when they reached the estuary.<br><br>
The scientists received enough signals from surviving fish to know that
it wasn't a failure in signal transmission. And, Schreck says, during an
earlier study using tags that broadcast a radio frequency, they recovered
transmitters from a cormorant rookery near the mouth of the Nehalem
River, and have tracked signals from the tags to a burgeoning seal
population -- also near the Nehalem's mouth.<br><br>
"There are a lot of seals right near the mouths of both rivers and
seals can eat a lot of young fish," Schreck said. "It's why the
steelhead need thousands of eggs to keep the population
going."<br><br>
One other possible explanation for the high mortality, Noakes said, is
that the young fish couldn't handle the transition from fresh to
saltwater. Salmon, steelhead and other "anadromous" fish have a
complex life cycle and for centuries have utilized both the ocean and
river systems. But a high mortality rate might be normal and a way to
weed out weak fish that can't make the adaptation to a new
environment.<br><br>
"We know that fish need a number of things to trigger their
migration to the ocean, including the amount of seasonal light, certain
temperatures, enough water flow, etc.," Noakes said. "But we
don't know why some fish remain in the river for one year before heading
out to sea, and others stay for two years. Just preparing to go from
fresh water to a salt water environment requires an enormous
adjustment.<br><br>
"There may be something about that adaptation that contributes to
the mortality," he added.<br><br>
If the mortality rate of juvenile steelhead is atypical, it could be
increasing because of some environmental factor -- warmer water, more
parasites, chemical contaminants, or higher acidification of ocean waters
coming into the estuary, for example.<br><br>
Or predation may be higher because of more seals, sea lions and
seabirds.<br><br>
Much of the research about steelhead migration, spawning behavior and
basic biology is emerging from studies done at the Oregon Hatchery
Research Center, a joint venture between OSU's Department of Fisheries
and Wildlife, and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Located on
Fall Creek, a tributary of the Alsea River, the research center is giving
fish biologists unprecedented new looks at the physiology and behavior of
steelhead.<br>
</body>
</html>