Domino effect of Klamath River mismanagement

Salmon rules threaten season

Management of Northern California's remote Klamath River could well serve as the ultimate model of a federal government gone completely haywire - strangled by agencies with overlapping responsibilities, stymied by politicians who refuse to make cogent decisions and governed by unbendable laws that prohibit any common sense or semblance of cooperation.

In 2002, mismanagement of the Klamath resulted in a fish kill of 78,000 adult king salmon, not to mention the deaths of 100,000 juveniles that didn't make it to the ocean. Since salmon have a four-year lifecycle, effects of that devastating kill are haunting us now. Federal biologists predict 29,000 salmon will return to spawn this year, well below the 35,000 goals set for the river by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

But here's the rub. Klamath River salmon mingle with other salmon and migrate up and down more than 700 miles of the California coastline. While the Sacramento River produces more than 85 percent of salmon found off the coast - more than 650,000 adult chinook are cruising about the ocean this year - the fact that anglers will catch some Klamath River salmon has put the whole season in doubt.

Data shows commercial and recreational ocean anglers will hook about 7 percent of the Klamath's salmon annually. This year, that harvest would amount to about 2,100 fish. Federal regulators decided to shut down the entire $150 million salmon fishery to protect this small number of fish from one degraded and mismanaged river.

What's worse, stocks of Sacramento River salmon are so strong that in 2005, more than 500,000 pounds of fish were killed and given to the poor rather than spawned at hatcheries to further add to the population. In scientific terms, "there was too much escapement," far above the number needed to spawn naturally or be artificially spawned.

"It's total gridlock, a real mess," said Roger Thomas, president of the Golden Gate Fishermen's Association and a member of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council that advises state and federal government agencies. "We're facing the loss of recreational and commercial ocean salmon fishing seasons, through no fault of our own, because of the way the Klamath River has been mismanaged."

Already, the National Marine Fisheries Service has closed ocean salmon fishing for 2006 in federal waters to protect remaining stocks of Klamath River salmon. The closure extends from three to 200 miles offshore from Cape Falcon, just north of the Oregon border, to Pt. Sur in southern Monterey County.

Some salmon fishing, however, still will take place because of a ruling by the California Fish and Game Commission, which allows ocean salmon fishing to start April 1 in state-controlled waters from the shore out to three miles.

"As of now we can salmon fish inside of three miles, but if the commission chooses to shut down state waters to conform with the federal government at its April 6-7 meeting, we could lose that, too," Thomas said.

There are a mix of issues that throttle the Klamath in its upper reaches - an arid, high-plateau desert region - with water guaranteed by law. Farmers in the Klamath Basin require water to grow their crops. Wetlands receive water to attract waterfowl that become food sources to more than 500 wintering eagles. Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon must have enough water to sustain two species of suckerfish that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Farther west, there are six downstream dams created for hydroelectric power, including Iron Gate Dam near Interstate 5, which has no fish ladder. A hatchery was created to mitigate the loss of habitat. Karok and Yurok Indian tribes have litigated to secure a guaranteed percentage of the adult salmon that return each year, literally closing off the river at times with hundreds of nets. Tributaries, like the Scott and Salmon rivers, are diverted for agriculture, and the Trinity River - the largest tributary to the Klamath - has most of its water sent south by the Central Valley Project.

Emotion and ethics also play a part. Some want only naturally spawning fish and the removal of all dams. Others, like Bruce Barngrover, a retired senior hatchery supervisor, scoff at the notion.

"A hatchery salmon looks the same, tastes the same and has the same fighting quality as a fish spawned in the river," he said. "Unless they've had an adipose fin clipped, nobody can tell them apart, including other salmon. DNA is the same."

Under Barngrover's leadership, salmon juveniles in the degraded Feather and American rivers were trucked to San Francisco Bay and released, to get them around degraded habitat and water that was too hot or too little.

"It works fine," he said. "Some of the fish stray on their migratory spawning runs, but most come back to their river of origin.

"The plan would work on the Klamath River, too."

Getting agreement on Barngrover's plan, or any plan, is almost impossible. Environmentalists and purists would have nothing of it. Then, consider that governmental agencies, including the federal Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a variety of state and local agencies all have jurisdiction, in one form or another, on the Klamath. When Mother Nature deals a winter with little precipitation, it's a sure-fire formula for disaster for fish in the lower Klamath below Iron Gate Dam.

The fish kill four years ago was because of low, warm flows that salmon could not survive. Could the fish have been saved? Of course. But competing interests sparked by politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers spelled doom for the king salmon, steelhead and silver salmon, as well. The result? Commercial and recreational fishermen hundreds of miles away from the Klamath will be forced to pay the price.

Contact outdoors columnist Peter Ottesen at pottesen@recordnet.com