The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said Saturday that 830,000 young Chinook salmon, released from its Fall Creek Fish Hatchery in Siskiyou County, are presumed to have died due to gas bubble disease in the Klamath River.
On Monday, CDFW released the fish into Fall Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River above Iron Gate Dam.
The fish were hatched at CDFW’s new, $35 million, state-of-the-art hatchery, which CDFW said represents California’s long-term commitment to supporting and restoring both Chinook and coho salmon runs on an undammed Klamath River.
The salmons experienced a large mortality based on monitoring data downstream. CDFW said in a statement there are indications the fish were killed by gas bubble disease that likely occurred as they migrated though the Iron Gate Dam tunnel, old infrastructure that is targeted for removal along with the Iron Gate Dam itself later this year.
Gas bubble disease results from environmental or physical trauma often associated with severe pressure change.
The CDFW said there’s no indication the deaths are associated with other Klamath River water quality conditions, such as turbidity and dissolved oxygen, which were reading at suitable levels on Feb. 26 and the days prior to release.
The visual appearance of the dead fry detected by monitoring equipment points to gas bubble disease, the agency said. Monitoring equipment documented other healthy yearling coho and Chinook salmon that came from downstream of the dam.
CDFW said the problems associated with the Iron Gate Dam tunnel are temporary and “yet another sad reminder of how the Klamath River dams have harmed salmon runs for generations.”
CDFW said it will plan all future salmon releases below Iron Gate Dam until it’s removed.
“Poor habitat conditions caused by the dams and other circumstances such as this are reasons why CDFW conducts releases of hatchery fish at various life stages,” CDFW said.
CDFW’s Fall Creek Fish Hatchery continues to hold approximately 3.27 million healthy, fall-run Chinook salmon. Additional releases are planned later in the month.
The annual fall-run Chinook salmon production goal for the hatchery is to raise and release 3.25 million fish. The additional Chinook salmon remaining in the hatchery exceeds the annual production goal and will help offset losses experienced with the initial release of fry.
What a screw up!
CDFW get your sh*t together!
Gavin newsom is a fool that doesn’t know anything.
You may not have read the story carefully. Or at all. Do you have anything at all whatsoever to contribute that isn’t toxic politics? Like a barking dog that just won’t stop. Enough already.
Could not agree more. Barking dogs is a great analogy. Give it a rest. Whine about Newsom and Beckton in stories that actually involved them.
He’s not wrong. Just a fan of non-sequiturs.
Seems fishy.
The article is meaningless without some context. How many fish were released and what was the expected mortality rate for this release? It also sounds like the tunnel was a known hazard with an expected high mortality rate.
Those running CA leave a great deal to be desired.
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pledging to fast-track more than half a dozen projects by the end of his term to remove or bypass dams that have blocked salmon from returning to the state’s chilly mountain streams and acting as the keystone of a complex ecosystem that sustains both economies and spiritual beliefs for tribes.”
https://tinyurl.com/bddh2nzh
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For additional on this go to Talk About Politics
March 2, 2024 – 11:44 PM
March 4, 2024 – 2:24 AM
This is information from a person in the know on a hunting and fishing forum: Losing some significant portion of 830,000 Chinook smolts in the Klamath at what remains of Iron Gate Dam (as it is being removed) is a bummer for everyone. This was obviously the first release of “smolts” from Fall Cr. Hatchery, and in February they are probably more likely smaller “pre-smolts”. And the reason releases are tagged and the survival monitoring is done as they move downstream is to learn what is or isn’t working. The release strategy for the remaining 3.27 million is now revised by what was learned.
But put it into perspective,… there have been zero Chinook coming from above Iron Gate since it was built in 1964. The Copco Dams upstream of Iron Gate cut salmon off long before 1964.
And probably the biggest limiting factor for Chinook survival of smolts coming out of the main-stem (and major tributaries like the Shasta and Scott Rivers) in the Klamath, and at least as far downstream as Seiad Valley, has for years been the mortality from the disease/parasite C. shasta. Some years 95% of the downstream migrants are so infected they aren’t going to survive when they get to the ocean. That “silent” mortality has been decimating the Klamath salmon runs for many years.
The most immediate benefit to salmon of the Klamath dams being removed is likely to be the change from the slack water reservoir conditions that promote C. shasta and also exacerbate the chronic algae problem in the river.
It will probably take much longer for the “Spring-run” life cycle salmon to recolonize the suitable habitat above Upper Klamath Lake where they used to be. The “recovery” Fall Cr. Hatchery is there to expedite that to the degree.
Steelhead will benefit much sooner as they are peone to push the furthest upstream wherever they occur.
Timeline of Klamath River
https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/klamath-river-basin-chronology
Sediment has been building behind those dams since day they began to fill.
They were warned of the potential problem and recent storms have likely accelerated dislodging of toxic sediment. Removal of Iron Gate may well kill most aquatic life downstream.
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“Photo of rancid water coming out of Iron Gate Dam.
(Photo: Siskiyou Co. Sup. Ray Haupt)”…
“…massive samples of sediment in the Klamath Basin contain high levels of heavy metals – chromium, aluminum, arsenic and lead. And this sediment was supposed to have been removed ahead of the Klamath Dams “unplugging.”
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Someone, somewhere in the dam deal decided $450 million was too much money to spend on sediment removal, even though everyone knew it was polluted…”
https://tinyurl.com/2s3rct44
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Don’t believe severity is of Cantara Loop Spill dimension it could be years before river is survivable for Salmon.
https://caltrout.org/news/30-years-later-upper-sac-river-and-cantara-loop-spill
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Fully expect high dollar lawsuits are possible.
Sounds like just another sob story to get people behind dam busting. Pretty soon there will be no hydro power and no stored water but the fish will be happy.
Iron gate dam/ reservoir then Copco Lake and on and on. “my opinion only”
On the BRITE side, liberals can go hug a tree in the dark.
About government employees,
“The best minds are not in government. If any were,
business would steal them away.”
— Ronald Reagan
Thank you Newscum… This is all by design. Welcome to Commiefornia.
Clearly more tax measures are required
Leave it to the state to screw even that up…. sad
Dam removal proponents claimed the project would help salmon,
but steelhead trout are dead, and salmon ‘spawning beds were destroyed’
https://tinyurl.com/rw9928hu
And what makes you think this doesn’t have any political sense to it? Newscum boasts about GW and has fantasies about fires and catastrophes to prove his agenda and that includes death of wildlife. You hayholes who don’t think there’s politics involved need to take wake up out of your cesspool coma you are in.
Is anyone else find “gas bubble disease” hard to believe?
Another gov’t program that just didn’t work.