Salmon dying in lower Klamath River

Scientists say the deaths of thousands of adult salmon in California's lower Klamath River can be linked to the Bush administration's decision to divert water from fish to farmers this year.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Scientists say the deaths of thousands of adult salmon in California's lower Klamath River can be linked to the Bush administration's decision to divert water from fish to farmers this year.

The fish are casualties of the warm, polluted waters of the river that
biologists trace back partly to the Oregon-California border, and the
farming operations that dot the region.

The die-off may open the door to a legal challenge of the new water
hierarchy that assured Klamath farmers the water they went without during
the drought of 2001. Fisheries groups said Monday they were considering a
suit against federal agencies for allowing the death of coho salmon
protected under the Endangered Species Act.

California state biologists had collected about 1,500 salmon carcasses as
of Monday, chinook, steelhead and coho. And officials expect 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 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.

But a national panel of scientists ruled early this year that last summer's
irrigation cutbacks were not justified by research. Citing that ruling, the
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.

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."

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."