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Tag, you’re it

 

Biologists tag endangered suckers in Lake Ewauna 

 

By SARA HOTTMAN

H&N Staff Reporter

April 5, 2011

 

H&N photos by Andrew Mariman    Brock Phillips, a fisheries technician with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, holds a female Lost River sucker captured in one of three nets on Lake Ewauna Thursday.

 

  At 7 a.m., Brock Phillips and Chas Kyger were bundled up on a small boat in Lake Ewauna pulling up nets they put in the water at 4 a.m.

 

   The morning was relatively warm — absent of the gale force winds from earlier in the week — but the water was still cool enough that their nets mostly contained driftwood and blue chub.

 

   But they had one success: a short-nosed sucker entangled in a net.

 

   The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the fourth consecutive spring is trying to capture and tag suckers in Lake Ewauna. The group went out on the lake Thursday to try to track the couple thousand thought to live in the lake.

 

   The group of endangered sucker was a surprise a few years ago. Biologists thought the water quality was too poor for the fish. Now the agency is working to quantify and track the fish to see if they can contribute to the Upper Klamath Lake sucker population.

 

Fisheries biologist Chas Kyger, left, and Brock Phillips, fisheries technician, both with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, pull in a Lost River sucker from Lake Ewauna Thursday.

   Phillips, a fish technician, and Kyger, a fish biologist, are tasked with catching suckers and inserting PIT tags, or passive integrated transponders — the same microchips owners embed in their pets.

 

   Over the life of the project biologists have tagged more than 900 fish, said K e v i n Mo or e, publ ic affairs specialist with the Bureau of Reclamation. Biologists estimate there are up to 2,000 suckers in Lake Ewauna.

 

   “The initial reason (for tagging) was to find out how many there are,” said Alex Wilkens, a fish biologist with the Bureau. “The next step is to see if they try or are able to move back to Upper Klamath Lake using the new fish ladder on the Link River Dam.”

 

   They’ll track movement using the PIT tags, which transmit signals picked up by a reader.

 

PIT tags used to track sucker movement

are inserted under the skin.

 

 

   When Phillips passed a reader over the sucker an identification number appeared, meaning a repeat catch. About half the suckers the men   have caught this year are repeats, Kyger said.

 

   Not finished yet

 

   Later this month, when the water is warmer than 39 degrees, they expect to catch more suckers.

 

   The estimated few thousand suckers are still a small group, Wilkens said, not necessarily a self-sustaining population — not large enough to potentially push the fish off the endangered species list.

 

   “It’s not a large enough group to impact (endangered) status,” Wilkens said. “If there were thousands and thousands maybe, but we’re looking at several hundred to a few thousand.”

 

   Upper Klamath Lake has the largest remaining sucker population. While biologists don’t intend to force fish to use the Link River Dam fish ladder, Wilkens said there is a possibility the Bureau would be required to do so in an effort to boost the lake population.  

A Lost River sucker is scanned for a tracking tag after being netted in Lake Ewauna.

 

  

Side Bars

 

Vital details taken for each tagged fish   

 

   Each sucker Brock Phillips and Chas Kyger capture in Lake Ewauna gets a full physical before it’s tossed back.

 

   Phillips checks for height, weight, eggs, damaged fins and parasites, as well as the presence of a PIT tag, or passive integrated transponder.

 

   The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for a fourth year is inserting PIT tags into suckers living in Lake Ewauna to quantify the size of the group and track its movement.  

 

   PIT tags are tiny, smaller than the Lincoln Memorial on the back of a penny.

 

   Biologists use a hollow 12-gauge needle to make a small incision in the sucker’s belly and insert the PIT tag under the skin — “well beneath the surface of the skin, but not internal,” said Alex Wilkens, fish biologist with the Bureau.

 

   When the fish passes within range of a reader, an individual identification number will appear, linking the fish with the physical biologists conducted.  

 

   Each PIT tag costs about $3, but suckers live uniquely long lives, Wilkens said. The average sucker lives 30 to 40 years and a Lost River sucker can live up to 60 or 70 years.

 
 
 
 
 
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