The effort to save Upper Klamath Lake’s endangered fish before they disappear

 

...Over the past few years, the Klamath Tribes have embarked on a mission to collect c’waam eggs in order to rear them in captivity, something senior fish biologist Alex Gonyaw calls “genetic salvage.” The tribes plan to release a small batch of 3- to 4-year-old fish next spring. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also began raising c’waam and koptu in 2018, but the lack of a substantial overlap between the wild and captive-raised populations could make the recovery difficult. The fish’s historic range has been reduced by 75%, and they need more habitat and better water quality before they can survive on their own.

C’waam and koptu — also known as Lost River and shortnose suckers — were thriving as recently as 70 years ago, supporting tribal fishing families and Klamath Tribes cultural practices. Since then, however, drought, hotter temperatures, dropping water levels and worsening water quality have all increased, threatening the fish’s survival. Given that agriculture, wildlife refuges and endangered coho salmon all need water, too, the Klamath Basin has long been notorious for infighting and litigation among irrigators, tribal nations and the federal and state governments. But this year’s historic drought and the colossal Bootleg Fire have brought more attention to the need for long-term solutions.

...At an inlet called Ball Bay, Jackson slowed the motor as the propellor churned out green water in the boat’s wake. “That’s crazy,” he said. “It doesn’t usually look like this till August.” Squiggles of neon-green filaments bobbed in the water below. Cyanobacteria and blue-green algae appear annually in Upper Klamath; once the algae bloom and die, their decomposition consumes the lake’s oxygen, suffocating the c’waam, koptu and other organisms. The algae also produce microcystins, neurotoxins and possible carcinogens that can’t be boiled or easily filtered out of the water. Swimming in it can cause rashes, and ingesting it can cause kidney failure in humans, and sicken or kill dogs and other animals.

Off the boat’s port side, back on land, a huge pivot sprinkler cast Upper Klamath Lake water over a farm field. The c’waam and koptu’s critical habitat is both a reservoir and runoff receptacle for the Klamath Project, a Bureau of Reclamation irrigation operation that waters 1,200 farms on 240,000 acres of farmland that was once wetland. This year, the farms received almost no water from the project because of drought. Neither did the two national wildlife refuges in the basin, nor the endangered coho salmon downstream in the Klamath River. Now, even domestic wells are beginning to fail.

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