Volunteers with the conservation organization Oregon Wild discovered dozens of endangered Lost River and short nose suckers trapped and dying in pools below Anderson Rose Dam on Sunday, April 24th. The US Bureau of Reclamation cut off almost all flow of water down the Lost River, an action that appears to have stranded the critically endangered fish attempting to swim upstream to spawn.
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| Stranded and dying fish discovered beneath Anderson Rose Dam. Credit: Oregon Wild |
“For years, politicians and federal agencies have focused on glad-handing and declaring mission accomplished in the Klamath Basin, while conditions for fish and wildlife have continued to get worse,” said Steve Pedery, Conservation Director for Oregon Wild. “This stranding and fish kill is the direct result of efforts to prioritize water for agribusiness over the survival of fish and wildlife.”
DOWNLOAD FULL SIZE PHOTOS (Credit Oregon Wild):
Anderson Dam 1 Anderson Dam 2 Dead Sucker Stranded Suckers 1 Stranded Suckers 2
Anderson Rose Dam sits on the Lost River, a few miles upstream from what was once Tule Lake. Historically, this lake was as large as 100,000 acres in size, and the Lost River was home to numerous Native American fishing sites. Early settlers set up canneries to take advantage of the abundant fish. However, the development of the sprawling Klamath Basin Irrigation Project dammed and diverted much of the Lost River, drying up most of Tule Lake. Today, endangered suckers still hold on in the fragments of open water left in Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, and continue attempts to reach their historical spawning habitat in the Lost River despite the dams and lack of fish passage.
“The Bureau of Reclamation, and the Obama administration that oversees them, has a legal and moral obligation to protect these fish, and the National Wildlife Refuge where they live,” observed Pedery. “In the coming days, we will be reviewing their actions to see if laws were broken.”
After Oregon Wild volunteers discovered the fish kill, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offices in Klamath Falls were alerted. Stranded and dying suckers were rescued from pools below Anderson Rose, and carried downstream to segments of the Lost River where water was still flowing and released. Some of the fish were as much as 29 inches and length, and estimated to be 30 years old.
It is unclear how many fish died as a result of the water shut-off.
