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Federal Fish Managers Brace for
Another Warm Year in the Northwest

Anna King
KUOW.org, October 28, 2015

Columbia River Sockeye (NOAA photo) The summer's early snowmelt, record temperatures and drought in the Northwest killed young hatchery fish and adult fish returning to spawn. And federal experts are expecting 2016 to be even worse for fish.

Seventy U.S. Fish & Wildlife managers passed around a microphone this week in a hotel conference room. They told scary stories about warm Northwest water. The Columbia River heated up this summer, and nearly the entire run of returning sockeye was lost.

Susan Gutenberger is a federal Fish & Wildlife manager. She said the salmon went up tributaries -- and still died.

"There were hundreds of them," she said. "And then of course they had fungus but they also had a couple of other problems."

Several Northwest federal fish hatcheries lost fish to disease or had to evacuate fish to other facilities. Fish experts hope for deep snowpack and predict a need to redesign hatcheries for warmer weather.


Related:

Biologist warns of climate warming effects on Idaho's wild salmon
At a Trout Unlimited meeting last week in Idaho, Bert Bowler, a fish biologist and former Columbia River policy coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said warming waters in the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia and lower Snake, pose a risk to the survival of the wild salmon that migrate to Idaho.
-- Idaho Mountain Express
Related Pages:
Count the Fish by Government Accounting Office, Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Efforts
Warm Water Blamed for Huge Columbia River Sockeye Die-Off by John Harrison, NW Power & Conservation Council, 7/31/15
Watch Warm Water Wreaks Havoc on Columbia River Fish by John Harrison, NW Power & Conservation Council, 8/12/15
Dworshak Dam Releases Reduced to Conserve Water for Fish Returning August, September by Staff, Columbia Basin Bulletin, 8/7/15
Biologists Bring Sockeye into Idaho on Trucks to Get Them Out of Hot Water by Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman, 7/17/15
Sockeye Salmon Suffer Infections in Warm Columbia River System by Rich Landers, Spokesman-Review, 7/17/15

Related Sites:
Idaho Department of Fish and Game Snake River Sockeye Program
NOAA Fisheries Manchester Laboratory Sockeye Program



Anna King
Federal Fish Managers Brace for Another Warm Year in the Northwest <-- Listen at original site.
KUOW.org, October 28, 2015

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