Klamath River Fry Monitoring 2016

The Karuk Tribe provided a crew of two technicians for trapping checks and maintenance between April 2017 and June 2017. Crews of up to 4 technicians were provided for deploying and removing rotary traps. Two large 8’ diameter and one small 5’ diameter trap were deployed in the upper mainstem Klamath River beginning in April and lasting through June. The trapping efforts were complicated by a wet winter and subsequent above average flow condition. Rotary screw traps were not operated during the peak of the fry migration due to high river flows. As an alternative to operating rotary traps, crews used portable frame traps in selective locations to capture fry. Beach seining techniques were also used to capture fry. Mark and recapture techniques were attempted with variable success due to high river flows in estimating fry abundance numbers. Rotary trapping efforts in the lower reach near Kinsman Creek were not successful due to low trap efficiencies due to the high flows and lack of overall trapping days. In the absence of accurate fry abundance and migration timing estimates an alternative method was used to determine fry production and migration timing using daily temperature units during the previous winter period. Winter temperature data collected by the Karuk Tribe was used to populate the fry production modeling effort. Fry sampling data were used to assist with other projects such as fish disease monitoring, but fish disease sampling was not the primary purpose of this effort.

This project benefits Klamath River salmonid by providing information in a long term data set to water managers, researchers and restoration efforts by collecting up to date data on migration timing, presence, fork length, and health of juvenile outmigrant salmonid as well as other fish in the Klamath River. More specifically the project assists with determining the annual fry abundance and health of the upper Klamath River juvenile Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon and Steelhead populations. Federal water managers use this data to determine flow needs for juvenile salmonids out migration from the Klamath River. The trapping sites are key locations for fish disease sampling. Clinical signs of fish disease are documented and a sub set of samples are collected where they are examined to determine the prevalence of infection (POI) from the pathogen C-Shasta. The combination of POI and weekly abundance estimates are key information for adaptive management including flow releases from Iron Gate Dam. The data also provide long term monitoring of the Klamath River Chinook population which is a major contribution to Tribal and commercial fishing industry.