Klamath fish dying by the thousands

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[ThreeYearLurker]

The fish had it coming to them.

[marsh2]

"...are dying at Blue Creek, 16 miles upriver."

"The water released from the Iron Gate Reservoir is warm, as much as 72 degrees fahrenheit."

Okay - they are blaming water quality from the (Upper) Klamath Basin, which is hours and hours away from 16 miles from the mouth of the Klamath where this took place. The water in the Klamath Basin is stored in shallow wetland lakes exposed to sun and the ambient air temperature is in the 90s-100s. The people in the Klamath Basin have pointed out that more water from them means more hot water. That's a fact of nature.

There isn't going to be a vast amount of cold water coming from the mid-Klamath, either. The Shasta River has the shallow lake Shastina for storage, which is also hot. On the Scott, the snow pack from last year has already melted and it hasn't rained lately. There is no storage. People have finished farming and are harvesting. You can't blame the farmers. Most are no longer irrigating. Water levels won't come back in the streams until heavy frost when the trees stop transpiring and the fall rains come. That is the cycle.

Hopes are that someday these "brilliant" (Humboldt State) biologists will rejoin the real world and realize that these Klamath system inland salmon live on the southern extremities of the species' range and, if climate trends continue as they have, they are frequently going to encounter inhospitable temperature conditions early in the spawning season.

You can't demand conditions based on salmon needs that are beyond the natural variability of the system. You can't demand mitigation for nature.

By the way, why aren't they looking at increased cold water flows from Blue Creek as the solution? No source? Well, why doesn't that logic apply to the mid and upper Klamath as well? Can you say political manipulation of public opinion?

[Mr. Peabody]

What about the suckers? The suckers?

[CPOSharky]

Don't salmon die after running up river to spawn?

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[farmfriend]

Thanks for the ping.

[Carry_Okie]

"We've been pleading with reclamation for several months to please give us more water so these fish would survive," said Dave Hillemeier, Yurok fisheries biologist. He admits it is too early to blame low water and high temperatures on the fish kill, but doesn't deny that one of the primary problems leading to poor water quality is low water.

I've met this guy. He has little credibility with me.

"It's hard to put a finger on what exactly it is."

That's right, Dave, because no matter what the problem, your solution will always be the same: Demand more late season water from farmers than the natural system ever delivered. If you get the water, will you pay them back if you are wrong?

[spunkets]

These fish never got to spawn. They were on their way and aquired an acute disease. The green weenies are trying to blame it on the republicans.

[steelie]

High unatural flows give the fish no refuge (or refugia as the fish freaks call it) Low natural flows provide that in times of drought. The deep pools are disturbed by high flows. While low flows do not warm the low intergravel flows The water behind the dams is excess water and is only needed in extrordinary cases. Recreationalist (rafters) want all that extra water to float clients upon. Fishermen are fools if the tie their boat to the enviros. More fish will survive under a natural flow regime, and the extra water collected in winter is used to fill the land with fruits and grains.

[steelie]

Did I say fruits?
I should have said food. I get a little biblical at times.

[kayak]

ping

[Jeff Head]

Thanks. Steelie is making good points in post 10.

[johnny7]

"It's hard to put a finger on what exactly it is."

Yea... he's already got two up his pie-hole!

[Carry_Okie]

Fishermen are fools if the tie their boat to the enviros.

Jeff, the "fishermen" who are involved in these fish listings, aren't. They are "represented" by Zeke Grader and Glen Spain at the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens Associations. These are UN-accredited NGO lawyers working out of the San Francisco Presidio, not fishermen. The fly-fishing groups who were originally associated with the steelhead listing have since disavowed that participation.

[Jeff Head]

As you well know, a whole lot of the enviro issues lead to the same place ... UN NGO's.

If any fishermen groups have tied themselves directly to the UM NGO lawyers you mention, then they are even bigger fools. Little wonder the fly-fishermen disavowed it.

[irradiateiraq]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm salmon!

[steelie]

Todays article in the Santa Rosa Press Demoncrat tells the story of how too much water can kill fish.

Although Mr. Hearn is probably misquoted that "higher flows take away the small gravel and sand... that fish need"
They generally need cobble from 1" - 5" depending on the species. Temperature is most affected by unnatural streamflows expieriancing too much solar radiation. (sunlight)

Jeff I and several others that were at Jarbidge and Klamath will try to meet up with the convoy in Calistoga on saturday and go on to Sacramento for Sunday's Rally. See Ya we hope!

[mtg]

This story sounds fishy to me.

[justrepublican]

Bumping for exposure.