Dead fish tied to policy flaws

Thousands of adult, migrating salmon are dying in California's lower Klamath River, victims of warm, polluted water that biologists trace in part to farming operations in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California line.

Thousands of adult, migrating salmon are dying in California's lower Klamath
River, victims of warm, polluted water that biologists trace in part to
farming operations in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California line.

The die-off, the worst anyone can remember, reveals that the Bush
administration's redirection of water from fish to Klamath Basin farmers may
not have resolved the larger ecological troubles plaguing the region.

It also may open the door to a legal challenge of the new water regime that
assured Klamath farmers the water they went without during last summer's
drought and angry protests. Fisheries groups said Monday they were "very
seriously considering" suing federal agencies for allowing the death of coho
salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act.

State biologists had collected about 1,500 salmon carcasses as of Monday.
The fish -- mainly fall chinook but also steelhead and the protected coho --
weighed from 15 to 25 pounds and had just begun swimming upriver from the
ocean to spawn. They were evident over about 30 miles of river, from the
mouth southeastward.

Officials expected to gather many more, said Paul Wertz of the California
Department of Fish and Game.

"It's safe to say the losses are in the thousands," he said. "There's no
memory of a loss of adult salmon of this magnitude before."

Fall chinook salmon have no federal protection but are an important food
source for the Yurok and Hoopa tribes of Northern California.

The coho salmon, however, is listed as a threatened species. The Endangered
Species Act prohibits actions that cause the death, or "take," of coho and
other threatened or endangered species.

Federal agencies withheld irrigation water from Klamath Basin farms last
year to protect both coho in the Klamath River and endangered suckers in
Upper Klamath Lake north of Klamath Falls. All are considered imperiled by
dams that blocked spawning, diversions of water for irrigation and polluted
runoff.

A national panel of scientists ruled early this year that last summer's
irrigation cutbacks were not justified by research findings. Citing that
ruling, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation operated its system of dams and
canals on the upper Klamath River in Oregon under a new strategy that this
year gave farmers water while leaving less for fish.

But the problem, experts say, may extend beyond the Klamath River Basin,
which Monday accounted for only a third of the river flow reaching the fish
kill zone. Numerous Northern California rivers, among them the Trinity and
the Scott, also feed the Klamath River.

This much is known: About 25 percent less water is flowing from the Klamath
River Basin to support coho downriver this year than last year, officials
said.

Leaders of the Yurok and Hoopa tribes had warned that the reduced release
would leave salmon vulnerable to warm and degraded water. They contend that
the government must protect Klamath salmon not only because of the
Endangered Species Act, but also out of trust obligations to maintain
traditional tribal fisheries.

"At every eddy, you see dozens and dozens and tons and tons of dead fish,"
said Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe. "These are fish
that would be going upriver to spawn, so we'd have a new class of fish
coming back three or four years from now."

A strong run

Biologists had projected a strong return of about 59,000
spawning chinook salmon this fall, so the die-off coming in the midst of
their migration may not have a severe impact, Wertz said. But experts are
more worried about the depleted coho population that is just beginning its
spawning run upriver.

The fish are dying of a fungus known as "gill rot," which spreads rapidly
among fish stressed by high temperature water. Temperatures above 70 degrees
are typically lethal to salmon but have risen close to 72 degrees in parts
of the lower Klamath River.

"It's terrible," said Dave Hillemeier, a biologist who is the Yurok
fisheries program manager. "It's a real tragedy, but it's indicative of what
fish are facing all year around now due to the flow regime that's now in
place up the river."

Farmers at the upper end of the river say it's unfair to blame them for the
water troubles, because water flowing out of broad, shallow Upper Klamath
Lake at Klamath Falls is already warm and rich in nutrients that can feed
damaging algae. Releasing more of it would only compound problems, they
argue.

"The issue now of releasing more warm water, we don't really want that to
see happen," said Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users
Association. "We don't want to see the fish suffer."

Water for refuges

He said Klamath farmers maintained that water instead go
to the Klamath Basin's national wildlife refuges, an important stop for
migrating waterfowl. Many of the refuges have been left dry this summer
because they rank a lower priority for water than endangered species, tribal
needs and farmers.

Keppen also said it's unfair to blame farmers in the high desert basin, a
small slice of the entire Klamath River watershed, for troubles concentrated
hundreds of miles away at the river's end. The river is warm there partly
because water is diverted from cooler tributaries such as the Trinity River
to irrigate farms in Central California.

Such a large die-off of adult salmon is very unusual, said Peter Moyle, a
fisheries professor at the University of California at Davis and one of the
national group of scientists reviewing last summer's water decisions. But he
said it's premature to pin the deaths entirely on poor water from farms in
the Klamath Basin.

"It's convenient to say it's the problem, and it's certainly not helping
anything," he said. "But they're only contributing part of the flow of the
river at that point."

Federal wildlife agencies issued biological opinions approving this year's
reduced water releases for fish, as long as steps were taken to minimize
harm to protected species. That means they are unlikely to take any action
in response to the fish kill.

"It's a problem of reduced flows throughout the system, and higher
temperatures and increased nutrients," said James Lecky, assistant regional
administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

But other groups, such as the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations, could argue in court that the deaths violate federal
protections and press for more water for fish, either for the remainder of
this year or next year.

Glen Spain, the group's director, said more water in the river -- even warm
water -- could help fish by dampening high temperature spikes during the
hottest hours of the day and by filling shady inlets where salmon could
avoid the heat.

"Last year in the middle of a drought we had more water coming down the
river than we do now," Spain said. "This is a very clear sign that the
system in place now is not working."