Condit Dam, and century old fish passage barrier on Washington’s White Salmon River, is being removed today. The blast event will be broadcast live on the interwebs, so if you like large explosions and dam removal, you should probably check ‘er out.
The dynamiting commences between 11am and noon, PST.
The Bonneville Power Administration is planning for a massive increase in hatchery production on Washington’s Klickitat River. This would include the construction of a new hatchery at Wachkiacus (river mile 16) and an acclimation facility at RM 70.
This is deplorable.
The Klickitat is one of few undammed rivers in the Columbia Basin, and still supports decent runs of wild fish. Doubling the hatchery production on this river is the exact wrong approach, and will impose serious harm to the ESA listed steelhead and chinook.
The BPA is hosting a meeting in Lyle (65 miles from Portland) on Wednesday, August 10th from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Myself and some others from the NFS will be attending and voicing our concerns. If you can, please show up, and voice your support for the wild fish in this amazing river. I plan to be leaving Portland at 4:45 pm if you’d like to hitch a ride, just leave a comment and I’ll get in touch.
If you can’t attend, at least write the BPA in opposition to this horrible plan. COMMENT! You can learn more at the Osprey.
Doing nothing will ensure that this new hatchery is built, and that the Klick as we know it will be placed in great danger.
Many articles have been written on the Fukushima disaster, but this piece in today’s Al Jazeera illustrates just how disastrous of an event this is. Not only has the radiation release surpassed Chernobyl - by an order of magnitude or more - but the consequences are being felt here on the west coast as well.
In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.
The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.
Thirty-five percent increase in infant mortality? That’s nothing short of terrifying.
I used to consider myself a proponent of Nuclear power. Coal power not only results in greenhouse gases, but is also the prime contributor to ocean acidification. Natural gas is often the by-product of hydrofracking, a procedure which pumps hundreds of toxins into our waterways, and hydro - well, if you’re reading this blog, you probably know my viewpoints on hydro. Wind and solar seem promising, but amount to a drop in the bucket when it comes to fulfilling our energy demands.
Up until a few months ago, I thought that nuclear power made sense. Sure, the radioactive byproduct needs to be buried somewhere, but I’d happily sacrifice a few hundred barren acres in Nevada instead of destroying our entire ocean and atmosphere. This whole incident makes me question that approach. Granted, Fukushima was built in the 70s, and modern day Nuclear reactor technology is believed to be far safer. But that no longer matters. Tell the public that babies are dying because of a nuclear incident 5,000 miles away, and you can damn well bet that we’re back to spewing CO2 out of coal plants for the next 30 years.
We need some clean energy breakthroughs, and fast. And whoever cracks that nut will make the Gates and Buffett fortunes look like chump change.
An environmental review commission in the Aysén region of southern Chile has made a potentially disastrous decision, voting to approve the construction of five hydroelectric dams, two on the Baker River and three on the Pascua. The damage these dams would do to the environment is tremendous, and their construction — in a largely unspoiled natural haven — would open the way for further development, including more dams.
…
To deliver the power they would generate — some 2.75 gigawatts — Chile would have to build a 1,400-mile corridor of power lines to the north, creating the longest clear-cut on the planet.
Nice to see this getting some play in the NYT.
In today’s Oregonian, seven Sandy River fishing guides have authored an Op-Ed in support of wild fish on the Sandy. Read it.
If ODFW does not give these wild fish the same chance to recover, as our larger community has already initiated, Oregonians are headed for the kind of widespread fishery closures that would devastate the businesses that sustain our Northwest communities and families. To save our industry, our fishery and these wild fish, join with us to oppose the continued excessive hatchery programs on the Sandy River.
When Bush left office in 2008, many questioned what his legacy would be. I just watched the movie Gasland, and I think it does a pretty fine job of exposing this legacy. In 2005, oil and gas companies were exempted from environmental regulations including the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act in order to fast track “hydro fracking” natural gas wells across the country. In the handful of years since, these unregulated wells have sprung up by the hundreds of thousands across the country, leaving devastation in their wake.
If you haven’t yet watched this documentary, it is a must see. Truly saddening, and as lovers of clean, pristine water, this issue needs all of our attention.
I’ve previously seen references to the 1997 Sandy Basin Plan, which established an Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) to recover wild winter steelhead on the Upper Sandy to 4,900 fish. I’ve never been able to find the original plan, however, and since that plan, this goal has been reduced to 1,730 fish in 2001, and then down to 1,515 fish this past year.
This morning, I was able to find the 1997 Sandy Basin Plan using a service call The Wayback Machine, which indexes changing versions of the majority of webpages on the internet.
This plan was written prior to the threatened listing of Sandy River steelhead under the Endangered Species Act, which occured in 1998. In this plan, which was implemented into OAR, you’ll find the following (emphasis added):
(2) Objectives:
(a) Rebuild the native wild winter steelhead run in the Sandy River basin by achieving an average annual spawning escapement of 4,900 adult winter steelhead at Marmot Dam: the short-term goal is to achieve an escapement of 4,900 wild adults during the months November to June and the long-term goal is to achieve an average annual spawning escapement of 4,900 that conforms to the historical run time of March to June;
(e) Modify or discontinue hatchery steelhead releases in the Sandy River basin if:
(A) It is determined that hatchery steelhead releases are principal causes of significant decline in wild winter steelhead abundance; or
(B) If Sandy River basin winter steelhead are listed as Threatened or Endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Just a year after the Sandy Basin Plan was written into law, these steelhead were listed as Threatened under the ESA. According the Oregon law, this hatchery program should have been discontinued or modified. But apparently the ODFW decided to take a more disingenuous approach. They changed the law.
Dig up the 2001 amendments to these OARs, and you’ll notice that section (e) has been removed in it’s entirety. Additionally, the escapement goal was reduced from 4,900 fish in the upper basin to just 1,730 fish for the entire basin.
(2) Objectives:
(a) Rebuild the wild winter steelhead runs in the Sandy River basin by achieving an average annual spawning escapement of 1,730 wild winter steelhead. Establish an increasing trend in the population of Sandy River wild winter steelhead
One of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted on the impacts of hatchery salmonids was published today, and the results should give pause to everyone who advocates on the behalf of hatchery programs.
The paper, “Reduced recruitment performance in natural populations of anadromous salmonids associated with hatchery-reared fish,” was written by Mark Chilcote of NOAA Fisheries and Kevin Goodson and Matt Falcy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The scientists did advanced statistical modeling on 89 populations of steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon from rivers across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.
While it is no surprise to those in the fish conservation community that hatchery fish impede the recovery and productivity of wild fish, some of the results are still somewhat surprising. Foremost among these findings is that newer broodstock programs are just as harmful as domesticated hatchery programs:
The impact of hatchery fish from ‘‘wild type’’ hatchery brood- stocks was no less adverse than hatchery fish from traditional, domesticated broodstocks. We also found no support for the hypothesis that a population’s reproductive performance was affected by the length of exposure to hatchery fish. In most cases, measures that minimize the interactions between wild and hatchery fish will be the best long-term conservation strategy for wild populations.
Over the past decade, a number of hatchery programs, including those on the Wilson, Trask, Nestucca, Siletz and Sandy, have been converted to “wild” broodstock programs. The theory is that by propagating hatchery fish from wild fish, the hatchery progeny will have better reproductive success and be less harmful to wild fish. Chilcote, et. al., have thoroughly debunked this theory, and the question remains - why is taxpayer money going towards the harvest of wild fish in order to convert their eggs into reproductively unfit hatchery fish?
Another interesting finding is that all three species - coho, steelhead and Chinook - experience identical productivity declines when the percentage of hatchery fish increases. When a basin is composed of 100% hatchery fish, the number of recruits per spawner are just 12.8% of what the wild population could produce. This curve holds true for any percentage of hatchery fish, so a river with 50% hatchery fish will produce just 56.4% of the wild fish as a river without hatchery fish.
The conclusion says it all:
While using hatchery fish in the short-term to reduce ex- tinction risk and temporarily boost depressed wild popula- tions to re-establish normative biological function are laudable conservation roles, such actions come at a cost in terms of reductions in per capita recruitment performance. Therefore, we conclude, as did Chilcote (2003) and Nickel- son (2003), that under most circumstances the long-term conservation of wild populations is best served by the imple- mentation of measures that minimize the interactions be- tween wild and hatchery fish.
If you’re interested, you can read the entire study here.
An article in The Seattle Times has been making the rounds today, discussing a joint effort by the ODFW, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association (NSIA) and Travel Oregon on promoting summer steelheading fishing opportunities on the mainstem Columbia River.
The full press release from the NSIA can be read here.
NSIA representatives included major retailers such as Fred Meyer and Fishermen’s Marine and Outdoor, tackle manufacturers, outdoor advertising and media, and guides. Facilitated by ODFW, the participants brainstormed ways to leverage their collective communication platforms and resources for better outreach to attract new customers to this thriving but underappreciated fishery.
“Steelhead are one of Oregon’s most prized game fish, known for their fight,” said Todd Davidson, Director of Travel Oregon. “Great conditions and stable fishing seasons make summer steelhead a solid draw to Oregon for visiting anglers and their families.” Davidson continued, “The statewide potential of this pilot project is tremendous.”
Last year, nearly half a million of these summer steelhead, often nicknamed “freight trains” entered the Columbia River and were pursued by anglers from the bank and from boats. For 2011 the steelhead returns will be down, but only slightly. “This is the perfect fishery for the families that shop Fred Meyer,” said Cheryl Kindwall, sporting goods buyer. “A Columbia River steelhead is easily caught from the river’s many public beaches, turning a fishing trip into a picnic and fun family outing.”
The press release goes on to discuss how this ”sustainable natural resource” can grow jobs, generating demand for fishing products, and sell more fishing licenses.
What is not mentioned is that summertime Columbia water temperatures are often in the high 60s and lower 70s, temperatures which are nearly lethal to cold-blooded steelhead. It’s all a steelhead can do to simply survive in these temperatures - once hooked and played, mortality goes to nearly 100%.
I have no problem with sportfishing companies, guides, and the ODFW promoting fishing opportunities, so long as it minimally impacts the health and survival of our wild fish.
When the ODFW and NISA push for increased fishing pressure on an ESA listed fish during lethal summertime water temperatures, something is amiss. This is simply a part of a much larger institutional problem though, where the agency responsible for protecting our fish is also funded by selling opportunities that harm our fish. This conflict of interest pervades the agency - rivers are filled with hatchery fish and endangered wild fish are exploited by promoting lethal summertime fisheries - all in the name of license sales.
I think there’s a suitable outcome, and it is to close fishing when water temperatures exceed 68F. Unfortunately, that isn’t even being discussed.
Update:
This graph illustrates summertime (July 1 - Sept 30) water temperatures at Bonneville between 1996 and 2010. The Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has defined 20C (68F) as the upper limit on water temperatures for salmonids. As temperatures rise above 20C and a fish is hooked and played, mortality quickly moves towards 100%.
As you can see, for the month of august, temperatures are almost always entirely above this 68F threshold, and frequently reach 22-23C (71.6 - 73.4F).
This is not a sustainable fishery.
To view a dynamic version of this chart, you can view the google spreadsheet.
From the Vancouver Sun:
Young steelhead and salmon showed a dramatic growth in streams seeded with sacks of slow-release fertilizer, a method that shows real promise to help rebuild collapsed salmon and steelhead spawning populations, according to B.C. biologists.
The method has proven effective at improving steelhead growth and survival in Vancouver Island streams in programs dating back to 1989.
Steelhead fry in treated areas are typically about 95 per cent larger than those in untreated streams, while coho fry are about 40 per cent bigger. Fish counts in the Keogh River found a 50 per cent increase in the number of coho that survived the freshwater stage of life.
