Huge Klamath fish kill claims thousands

Low flows in the Klamath River spark a massive fish kill.

As feared, warm water appears to have caused a massive fish kill on the Klamath River.

Some 4,000 chinook salmon are estimated to have perished over the past few days. The fish appear to have died from one or two diseases triggered by stress, likely brought on by warm, poor-quality water in the river.

The deaths occurred between the mouth of the Klamath and its tributary Blue Creek, about 16 miles upstream.

"It's a pretty tragic scene," said Yurok Tribe fisheries biologist Dave Hillemeier.

Many believe the fish kill, and others in recent years, are the product of poor management of water in the Upper Klamath Basin by the U.S Bureau of Reclamation. It runs a project that supplies about 200,000 acres of farmland with water.

Last year, it was determined there was not enough water to dole out to farmers and protect threatened coho salmon in the river, and other fish in Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon. Many farmers had their water cutoff.

The National Academy of Science in a draft report found there was no justification for that decision, but also that there was no justification for running the project as it has been traditionally. Federal fisheries agencies opined this year that salmon needed far less water.

There are also a series of dams on the Klamath owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requires that water be released at 1,300 cubic feet per second from the lowest dam in September. Water is now flowing at 750 cfs, two-thirds of last year's flow.

PacifiCorp has argued it can't send water down the river if the bureau doesn't send enough past its irrigation project. The bureau has argued it doesn't have a responsibility to meet the FERC requirement.

The bureau is meeting its legal requirements lined out by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said.

"We're providing the water called for by both our biological opinions," McCracken said.

Hillemeier said the tribe had pleaded with the bureau for more water at the beginning of the salmon run in late summer, to no avail.

"The tribal members are going to be hurting for years to come because of management decisions made this year," Hillemeier said.

Last month, the bureau warned irrigators if they did not conserve water, they would have deliveries curtailed.

But when newspapers reported that so much irrigation water was being sprayed onto highways that roads needed major repairs, nothing was done.

While many think water releases would help dilute pollutants from upstream farm runoff, some think releasing warm water might harm fish.

"I just don't know where (cold water) would come from," McCracken said, as Upper Klamath Lake is shallow and warm.

It isn't clear whether the bureau could send cold water into the river from Clear Lake or Gerber Reservoir.

The Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes all fish for salmon that run up the Klamath and its big tributary the Trinity. Once a thriving salmon population in the rivers supported thousands of jobs in the commercial salmon fishery too.

Ironically, fishing in the Klamath has been excellent recently, but that has many concerned that all those fish could be subjected to the poor condition of the river that just claimed salmon.

Different runs of salmon will continue to move up the Klamath through December.