Small Fall Chinook Return in Klamath Tied to Juvenile Die-Offs
By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press
November 10, 2004

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Fall chinook salmon returns to the Klamath River are running about two-thirds below last year, reflecting the loss of thousands of juveniles to low water in 2000 and 2001 and perhaps signaling a downturn in food available in the ocean.

"There are not a whole lot of live fish swimming around," said Gary Stacey, fisheries program director for the California Department of Fish and Game's North Coast region in Redding, Calif.

Stacey said the reduction was likely due to a combination of factors. Low water during the spring and summer migration down the river to the ocean killed 100,000 to 300,000 juvenile chinook in 2000, and tens of thousands in 2001.

The bulk of this year's returning fish are from those year classes.

Stacey said chinook salmon are paying the price for scarce water supplies being managed for coho salmon, which are on the threatened species list. Extra water put down the Klamath River for coho helps some chinook migrate to the Pacific. But the young chinook that wait until summer are left to struggle.

"The combination of low flows when the juveniles are migrating out, warm temperatures, and the interaction with these naturally occurring disease organisms — they are all adding to the problem," said Stacey. "The flows that we are getting are focused entirely on coho, and they are not large enough to provide optimal conditions for fall chinook."

The losses of juvenile fish don't fully explain the declines, indicating that ocean conditions that have produced plentiful runs in recent years may be reversing as a mild to moderate El Nino is forming, Stacey said. The climatic cycle known as El Nino produces warmer waters in the Pacific, leading to less food for salmon. Returns are also down, though not so much, in the Sacramento River to the south and the Rogue River to the north.

Salmon fishermen say this is the first of at least three years in a row of declining Klamath chinook returns that will force reduced ocean harvests up and down the West Coast. The juvenile salmon losses were followed in 2002 by the loss of 36,000 to 70,000 adult chinook to diseases related to low and warm water. Fewer Klamath salmon forces cutbacks in harvests from the central Oregon coast to San Francisco because the fish mix in the ocean.

"It all comes down to too little water at a time fish need it in the river system," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen. "That I lay to the doorstep of the Bureau of Reclamation for cutting off flows in the river and producing what was an artificial drought for several years running."

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has been struggling to share scarce water among farms in the Klamath Reclamation Project straddling the Oregon-California border, threatened sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake, and threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River and its tributaries.

"We are continuing to operate the Klamath project according to a biological opinion from NOAA Fisheries," said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken. "They have determined the long-term flows. And these flows have been supported by a water bank that next year is calling for 100,000 acre feet from willing sellers in the basin."

The 3,013 adults that have returned to Bogus Creek and the 950 returned to the Shasta River amount to 23 percent of last year's run at this time, said Stacey. Compared to the good returns of 2001, this year's returns to the Shasta are 9 percent. The 10,500 chinook that have returned to the hatchery at Irongate Dam on the mainstem of the Klamath River are 33 percent of last year's run at this time.

Farms in the Klamath Project got their full deliveries in 2000, though water was scarce enough to delay deliveries to nearby wildlife refuges. In 2001, drought was so bad that the bureau cut off water to most of the Klamath Project to meet Endangered Species Act demands for coho and suckers.

Since then the bureau has been buying water from farmers to give to fish to meet the growing demands set under a biological opinion outlining what the coho need to survive.

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Salmon Thin in Klamath Area Rivers
By John Driscoll, Eureka Times-Standard
November 11, 2004

The clean-running wilderness torrent called the Salmon River appears to be missing something this fall.

Its salmon.

Fish counters scouring the Klamath River tributary have found even fewer spawning chinook salmon than were recorded in the last record low season.

Biologists have counted only 57 salmon carcasses as the spawning period nears its end. That's 13 less than at the same time in 1999, the last record low. When the count is complete, it is extrapolated to give an estimated figure for the total number of fish spawned.

"It's shocking," said Nat Pennington, fisheries program coordinator for the Salmon River Restoration Council. "It's the least I've ever seen."

The numbers could be the lowest since 1978, when the California Department of Fish and Game started keeping track on the river. The Salmon River also saw the worst spring-run chinook return in more than a decade this year.

The number of fish on the usually productive Scott and Shasta rivers also seem to indicate an exceedingly poor run.

Numbers throughout the Klamath River basin appear to be down from recent years, but 95,000 fish -- including hatchery and wild fish -- are projected to return this year. The vast majority of wild fish spawn in the main stem Klamath and in Bogus Creek.

Neil Manji, a senior biologist with Fish and Game, said the entire river's run almost certainly won't be as low as those in the early 1990s, when runs tanked out at under 40,000.

"Let's not get carried away," Manji said. "Most likely it's not going to be the lowest year on record."

But tributaries like the Salmon, Scott and Shasta could all see record low years.

While the Klamath has its share of excruciating problems like poor water quality, often hot temperatures and sometimes rampant disease, Manji said he couldn't tie die-offs of juvenile fish in 2000 and perhaps 2001 to a reduction this year. In fact, 3-year-old fish came back in big numbers in 2003, the offspring of salmon leaving the river in 2000.

Pennington said some are worrying whether the minimum 35,000 naturally spawning fall-run salmon will be met this year. That's the number of fish that's supposed to be leftover after tribes and sport and commercial fishermen are allocated their share.

Pennington said the problem lies with the poor conditions on the Klamath.

"The problem isn't people catching fish," he said.

In fact, while the Yurok Tribe and sport fishermen on the lower Klamath caught their quotas of salmon this year, the Hoopa Valley Tribe and sport fishermen have caught significantly fewer fish on the Trinity River compared to last year at this time.

Hoopa Valley senior biologist Mike Orcutt said it's premature to draw conclusions on the Trinity run, which is later than the other rivers'.

The size of the Klamath's run dampens commercial ocean fisheries' quotas up and down the West Coast. Considered the "weak stock," limits are set to avoid catching Klamath salmon that mix with other stocks.

Solid estimates of next year's run of salmon won't be available until January or February. But many biologists are worried that the 2002 fish kill -- which claimed between 34,000 and 68,000 adult salmon that fall -- will come home to roost next year. They are also watching the ocean, which may not be as productive as it has been in recent years.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.