new report confirms widespread historic distribution of salmon and steelhead above klamath

April 1, 2005

PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS
Northwest Regional Office
PO Box 11170, Eugene, OR 97440-3370
(541)689-2000 Fax: (541)689-2500
Email: fish1ifr [at] aol.com Web: http://www.pcffa.org

For More Information, Contact: Glen Spain, PCFFA NW Regional Director (541)689-2000

NEW REPORT CONFIRMS WIDESPREAD HISTORIC DISTRIBUTION OF SALMON AND STEELHEAD ABOVE KLAMATH RIVER DAMS, HIGHLIGHTS DAMAGES DONE BY THE DAMS TO RIVER'S ECONOMY

Yreka, California -- A new report to be published next week in the prestigious American Fisheries Society's publication Fisheries confirms what commercial fishermen, Tribes and scientists have been saying for years: salmon and steelhead were once abundant above the Klamath Dams which now block their way. Historic records summarized in the report make it clear that the Klamath's once abundant runs could be restored to hundreds of stream miles of historic habitat if Klamath dams that now block fish passage are removed.

Both PacifiCorp (which now owns the Klamath Dams) and some agricultural goups in the Upper Klamath Basin have claimed that salmon never historically existed in the Upper Basin. Those assertions are simply not true, according to a multitude of historical records summarized and compiled by the four fisheries biologists and scientists who wrote the Fisheries report. The report is titled "Distribution of Anadromous Fishes in the Upper Klamath River Watershed Prior to Hydropower Dams - A Synthesis of the Historical Evidence" and will be published in the April edition of Fisheries.

"Building the Klamath Dams, in hindsight, was a serious mistake," noted PCFFA Northwest Director Glen Spain, "and this report proves the point. The Klamath River was once the third largest salmon-producing river in America, but the dams were built with no fish passage and cut the river in half. Hundreds of stream miles of once occupied upstream habitat could once again be the home of abundant salmon and steelhead runs. With restored runs, the economic benefit of dam removal to lower river and coastal fishing dependent communities would be enormous."

This year, serious declines in the Klamath Basin caused by 2002 water flow problems, as well as lack of access for fish to blocked habitat above dams, has triggered coastal ocean salmon fisheries closures as compared to 2004's season of 50 percent or more from Santa Cruz, CA to the Columbia River, more than 800 miles of coastline, likely resulting in economic losses in Oregon and California up to $100 million.

Today the Klamath fall chinook are the weakest stock of fall chinook salmon on the west coast. The need to protect those weak Klamath salmon runs, whenever they intermingle in the ocean with other more abundant runs, now constrains all other harvests. This year, even though record runs approaching 1.7 million chinook are expected in the California central coast and northward from the California Central Valley hatcheries, most of those fish will be out of bounds for fishermen on a ratio of up to 60 California Central Valley fish for every single Klamath fish that must be protected from accidental capture. This means a huge loss for commercial fishermen at a time of record or near-record runs from everywhere else but the Klamath.

Klamath runs today are less than 10% of their historic numbers, with Klamath coho salmon (federally protected under the Endangered Species Act) down to a mere 2-3 percent of historic abundance. Loss of access to upriver spawning habitat blocked by several small hydropower dams has been a continuing factor in these declines. However, the power produced by all these dams combined is miniscule, less than one-tenth the power produced by just one modern gas-fired turbine power plant.

"This report just adds to the evidence that these small, obsolete dams must go. They produce little power, but are strangling a once booming coastal fishing economy and killing a river that thousands of people depend on for their communities, cultures and jobs," summarized Glen Spain. "These dams have to go. When they do, the salmon will come back home."

The federal licence for these small Klamath hydropower dams expires in March of 2006. Negotiations are ongoing about their ultimate fate.

A copy of the report is attached can be obtained by reply to fish1ifr [at] aol.com. The principle author of the report, Fisheries Biologist John Hamilton, is reachable at the Yreka US Fish and Wildlife Office at (503) 842-5763.