April 28, 2001
This message is from a fish researcher who has done research on the Klamath
In this morning's Oregonian, there was another article on the
Klamath drought/irrigation/salmon situation. It was on page B4 of the paper
we get (supposedly the State edition).
In any event, near the end of the article was a strange statement that the irrigation water is needed for endangered suckers (don't know much about them) and "... would
jeopardize coho salmon which need sufficient water to spawn downstream".
Coho Salmon are tributary spawners not mainstem spawners.
Upper Klamath irrigation water can not give one inch of spawning water in lower Klamath river tributaries (Scott, Shasta, Salmon, etc.). It is a physical
Chinook Salmon are mainstem spawners in the Klamath and they
are once again in fine shape now that the ocean has reverted to a cool,
By the way, the ocean is the reason for the decline in Coho Salmon that precipitated the ESA situation although this is not what NMFS or the press or the environmentalists want you to believe. This is well
documented now including my own 1999 publication on the coastal Coho situation.