Fishery managers are taking unprecedented steps to protect fish from potentially lethal conditions caused by the drought this summer. Fishing is restricted in some areas and hatcheries are having to make changes.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is concerned that low snowpack and warm weather have raised water temperatures and reduced flows in rivers and streams, causing problems for fish, said Teresa Scott, the department’s drought coordinator.
“This is new stuff for us. We haven’t really had to develop strategies to help fish through a drought before,” she said. “We’re working on a lot of fronts.”
A statewide drought was declared by Gov. Jay Inslee on May 15. Significant portions of the state, including the Cascades and the Olympic Peninsula, are now classified as being in a “severe drought,” which is the middle rating on a five-point scale used by the Department of Ecology.
“All of our rivers are at record lows,” said Larry Altose, a spokesman for the Department of Ecology. “Conditions are very dry.”
The effects of the drought are wide-ranging.
Already, two federal hatcheries on the Columbia River released 6 million juvenile salmon two weeks early in the hope that the fish will make it to the sea before the water becomes too warm.
According to Ecology’s Weekly Drought Monitoring Report for July 2, staff of the Quileute Nation near Forks had to rescue 150 steelhead fry recently from a pool where they’d become cut off from Elk Creek.
During warm weather, fish can usually find cooler temperatures in deeper water. But because of the drought, the water is shallower than usual.
“The water is much warmer than the fish are used to,” Scott said.
Fish do best in water temperatures below 65 degrees. Fish can die if the water temperature reaches 70 degrees, Scott said.
They also get diseases and swim slower, making them more susceptible to predators in warmer water, she said.
The shallow rivers pose a physical barrier to migration as well. Fish need at least four inches of water to be able to move, Scott said.
Fish and Wildlife officials are concerned that later this summer the adult salmon won’t have enough water to make their way back to the hatcheries, she said.
Salmon and steelhead unable to make it to spawning grounds may have to be physically carried upstream.
The state is experimenting in hatcheries with ways to cool the water and get more oxygen into it, Scott said.
Mike Crewson, a salmon biologist for the Tulalip Tribes, said the Tulalip and Wallace Falls hatcheries don’t have enough water, so they are having to reuse it, which puts the health of the fish at risk.
They are also moving fish to other hatcheries and are unable to take in adult salmon due to the lack of water.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest River Forecast Center is predicting below normal flows for every river it measures throughout the state. With low water levels in the Skykomish, Stillaguamish, Snohomish and Snoqualmie rivers, Crewson said, conditions for the salmon might continue to get worse if the weather remains warm and there isn’t enough rain.
Recent measurements of water flow at 43 locations across the state show record low flows at 20 of those locations: the Skykomish River near Gold Bar had a July 2 flow of 516 cubic feet per second (cfs), just 10 percent of the historic average flow for that date and less than half of the previous record low of 1,200 cfs in 1992.
Other rivers, especially the Sauk, are breaking records for low flow set almost a century ago: the Sauk had just 799 cfs on July 2, 22 percent below the average for that day. The previous record was 1,060 cfs, set in 1926.
Fish and Wildlife is already restricting fishing in other parts of the state. Anglers are encouraged to limit catch-and-release fishing to the morning hours to reduce stress on fish; to land fish quickly; and to return fish back to the water immediately. If water is unusually shallow or warm, don’t fish there.
“It looks to me that King and Snohomish county have been hit very hard with this,” said Neil Westover, the conservation chairman for the Evergreen Fly Fishing Club.
The club recently wrote a letter to Fish and Wildlife, recommending that the state shut down the fishing season until the rains start up again and the fish can recover.
“We see the need sooner rather than later,” Westover said.
When members of the club went up the North Fork Stillaguamish River to clean up the area a few weeks ago, he saw a significant number of chinook salmon in a pool at Hazel, upstream of the Oso mudslide.
On a couple of trips to the South Fork, however, Westover saw nothing. The river, he said, was “bony”: “Lots and lots of rocks.”
The state is asking people to call them if they see fish that are stranded in pools of water so they can be rescued. They should not make rock dams in streams and rivers because they can block fish passage.
Information on drought fishing rules and report problems on the Fish and Wildlife website: wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/drought.
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports.
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