Willits News - Willits, CA
March 3, 2006
In 2002 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reduced the flow in the Klamath River, to help farmers secure enough water for their crops. Too many fish were squeezed into too little water because of a huge run of Chinook salmon that year. As a result, disease spread quickly and at least 133,000 fish (95 percent salmon) died and literally wiped out a large portion of the Chinook run that year.
I witnessed this catastrophe; it was terrible to see so many dead salmon lying on the bottom of a viable spawning stream like the Klamath. Had these salmon made it to their spawning grounds before dying, their offspring would now be adults and making their run up the Klamath to spawn.
Regulators feel the run of Chinook in the Klamath may be the lowest since 1992 and will regulate the sport and commercial salmon season on the North Coast accordingly. The talk is that sport fishing season may be short-lived and close as soon as April 15, and commercial salmon season may not open at all this year.
Many commercial salmon fishermen will be forced out of business--which seems to be a pattern over the past several years--because of the reduction in the number of days they can fish.
The lack of sport fishermen in the coastal areas will have an adverse effect on the economy, which has also suffered for a few years because of restrictions.
The largest salmon barbecue in America, which happens every Fourth of July in Fort Bragg, will once again have to rely on outside sources of salmon for the annual fundraiser. Theyll have to pay for the fish they serve instead of getting the bulk of their salmon from local commercial anglers who donate to the cause.
The 2002 Klamath disaster will be felt for some years to come. Klamath water flows seem to have been better managed for the past few years. Hopefully the type of die-off that happened on the Klamath four years ago will never happen again.
Source: http://www.willitsnews.com/Stories/0,1413,253~26909~3257987,00.html