Klamath River Fish Hit Hard by Drought, Disease
Droughts always imperil wild fish, particularly in the Klamath River. “Right now, the Klamath River is full of dead and dying fish on the Yurok Reservation,” said Frankie Joe Myers, the Yurok tribe’s vice chairman, adding that the deaths are a result of lower flows and of the deadly disease Ceratonova shasta, a microscopic parasite that causes hemorrhaging and necrosis of the intestine of salmon and trout. The current fish kill is similar to one in 2002, when some sixty thousand fall-run adult Chinook salmon died from low-water flows and diseases. Myers added: “This disease will kill most of the baby salmon in the Klamath, which will impact fish runs for many years to come. For salmon people, a juvenile fish kill is an absolute worst-case scenario.”
Every year, Myers reported, the Yurok Fisheries Department monitors the Klamath for the deadly disease, using a massive machine called a screw tap to collect live fish for assessment. “On May 4, 2021, the most recent date for which data are available, 97 percent of the juvenile salmon between the Shasta River and Scott River stretch of the Klamath were infected with C. shasta and will be dead within days,” states a monitoring report on the river. “We are watching a massive fish kill unfold in real time,” said Yurok Fisheries Department director Barry McCovey Jr., a Yurok citizen who has studied fish disease in the Klamath for more than two decades.
According to the University of California Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, “Northern California has received about 48 percent of average historical precipitation for this time of year. This is the third-driest water year on record. Only 1924 and 1977 were drier in precipitation over the last 101 years. At this time of year, there will probably be little precipitation until fall. Statewide, snowpack is about 30 percent of average for this date.” Droughts have occurred many times in California, according to records, including from 2011 to 2017, 2007 to 2009, 1986 to 1992, 1976 to 1977, in the 1950s, from 1928 to 1937, in 1924, from 1863 to 1864, and in 1841.
The fish kill is exacerbated by the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that during the drought period, the agency would not increase water releases to the river to prevent the fish kill. This year, as in previous years, the USBR has allocated more water for farming than to sustain the juvenile fish in the Klamath. A report by California Trout and the UC Davis Watershed Center warns that “climate change is an overarching threat to native salmonids. And if the present trend continues, 45 percent of the native salmonids will be extinct in the next 50 years.”
According to a news release provided by fisheries groups, “California Trout, alongside tribes and other conservation groups — Karuk, Klamath, and Yurok tribes, American Rivers, California Waterfowl, Fly Fishers International, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited — are calling on President Joe Biden and his administration to provide immediate disaster relief for the Klamath Basin.” The request is pending in Washington, DC.
In May, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency and proposed a $5.1 billion package for water infrastructure and drought response as part of his $100 billion California Comeback Plan. The last drought emergency was declared in 2015, when former governor Jerry Brown ordered California’s urban residents to cut water use by 25 percent. Governor Newsom has not recommended a water-use cutback, possibly fearing flak from residents and with a recall election looming in his future.
Because the adult salmon forecast is very low, the Yurok Tribe has canceled its commercial fishery in the Klamath for the fifth time to protect struggling fish stocks, which has had a major impact on the tribe’s income. The median income for tribal families is $11,000. Many tribal members rely on the fishery to pay basic bills.
The Klamath, though, is not without fish. According to the CDFW report, the fall Chinook run is significantly lower than the long-term average, but still, 181,500 adult salmon are in the river.
Klamath Dam Removal Moves Forward
On June 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the transfer of the license for the Lower Klamath Hydroelectric Project from PacifiCorp to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation and the states of Oregon and California, “This is a crucial step towards achieving a free-flowing river and getting the four lower Klamath dams removed,” stated a press release from California Trout.
Department of Fish and Wildlife Could Get More Staff
On January 10, 2021, Governor Newsom proposed to increase the California Department of Fish and Wildlife budget in order to add “216 staff positions to deliver services and safeguard fish and wildlife in California.” “The proposed budget increase shows that the Newsom administration is deeply invested in California’s biodiversity, both for its intrinsic, ecological value as well as for future generations of hunters, hikers, anglers, bird and outdoor enthusiasts,” said the CDFW in a budget briefing.
A preliminary revision of the budget — called a May revision — adds 39 new positions. After negotiations by the state legislature, the final number will likely be between 39 and 216 when the final state budget is approved in time for the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, 2021. The increase is part of the department’s proposed $726 million 2021–2022 budget, which includes funds for more staff, equipment, and wildfire reduction projects. The CDFW’s previous 2020–2021 budget was $633 million.
Some of the fish-related improvements in the governor’s package include $230 million for wildlife corridor and fish projects to improve the ability of wildlife to migrate safely, $91 million for critical data collection to repair and augment the state’s water data infrastructure to improve forecasting, monitoring, and assessment of hydrologic conditions, and $33 million for fishery and wildlife support to protect California’s ecosystems.
CDFW Fishing Regulations Only Available Online
The CDFW has transitioned to a digital format for the 2021 hunting and fishing regulation booklets. They are no longer printed and shipped to agents or customers. The online version is at https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations.
Disease at Hot Creek Hatchery
The CDFW has suspended all fish planting from the Hot Creek Trout Hatchery in Mono County because a bacterial outbreak has been detected at the facility. Fish pathology experts have confirmed an outbreak of Lactococcus garvieae, bacteria that cause lesions, hemorrhages, and petechias in the internal organs of trout. The CDFW has quarantined the facility, halted all fish planting from it, and is preparing to expand testing and to vaccinate the fish stocks. Lactococcus garvieae is the same disease that forced the quarantine and suspension of fish planting last year at three other CDFW trout hatcheries in Southern California and the eastern Sierra — the Mojave River Hatchery, the Black Rock Trout Hatchery, and the Fish Springs Trout Hatchery. That outbreak ultimately forced the euthanization of 3.2 million trout at those hatcheries.
The outbreak of Lactococcus garvieae has been reported in cattle and poultry farms, as well as freshwater and saltwater fish and shellfish hatcheries around the world. It had never before been detected in fish in California until the hatchery outbreaks last year.
The hatchery is located in Mammoth Lakes and raises rainbow trout, brown trout, Eagle Lake trout, and Lahontan cutthroat trout for recreational angling. Fish from the hatchery are stocked in Mono and Inyo Counties.
