A conservation group recorded the video after a
heatwave in the Pacific north-west on a day when water temperatures breached
70F
The video released by Columbia Riverkeeper shows the
injuries to the sockeye salmon. Video by Conrad Gowell, courtesy of Columbia
Riverkeeper
The salmon in the video won’t be able to spawn in the
tributary, and are expected to die from disease and heat stress.
Red lesions and white fungus on the salmons’ bodies
are the result of high water temperatures and stress.
Hallie
Golden in Seattle
Tue 27 Jul
2021 17.00 BST
Salmon in
the Columbia River were exposed to unlivable water temperatures that caused
them to break out in angry red lesions and white fungus in the wake of the
Pacific north-west’s record-shattering heatwave, according to a conservation
group that has documented the disturbing sight.
In a video
released on Tuesday by the non-profit organization Columbia Riverkeeper, a
group of sockeye salmon swimming in a tributary of the river can be seen
covered in injuries the group say are the results of stress and overheating.
The salmon
had been traveling upstream in the Columbia River from the ocean, to return to
their natal spawning areas, when they unexpectedly changed course, explained
Brett VandenHeuvel, the executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper. He
described the sockeye as veering off to the Little White Salmon River, a tributary
of the Columbia River where the video was recorded, in an effort to essentially
“escape a burning building”.
The
conservation group recorded the video following the heatwave on a day when
water temperatures breached 70F (21C), a lethal temperature for these
anadromous fish if they are exposed to it for long periods. The Clean Water Act
prohibits the Columbia River from rising over 68F (20C).
VandenHeuvel
compared the situation to a person trying to run a marathon in over 100F (38C)
temperatures.
“The
difference is that this isn’t recreation for the salmon,” he said. “They have
no choice. They either make it or they die.”
This scene
is yet another example of the tragic toll taken by the recent heatwave, which
killed hundreds of people across the Pacific north-west and Canada, probably
caused more than 1 billion marine animals to perish, and contributed to fires
across the region.
But
VandenHeuvel said the incident went beyond the heatwave, and was exacerbated by
the many dams that for decades have held up the water flows across Washington
state and beyond, and thus increased water temperature. Climate change and the
recent deadly heatwave simply threw the situation to the extreme.
A
videographer captured the scene for the Columbia Riverkeeper earlier this month
as part of the organization’s effort to try to keep track of the salmon’s
progress in the heat.
VandenHeuvel
said it was too early to say exactly how many salmon have died as a result of
the hot water. But there are tens of thousands of sockeye still in the Columbia
and Lower Snake rivers, and so as these waterways grow hotter over the next two
months, many more fish could die. And given that Snake River sockeye are
already considered endangered, the death of just a small section of their
population could have dire effects.
Mike Tuell,
deputy director of production for the Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries
Resource Management, dip net fishes with his girldfriend’s son, Nat’aani
McCaskey, 12, at Rapid River on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
VandenHeuvel
recalled traveling out to the area in the days after the video was recorded,
and said he saw salmon suffering in a similar way in other tributaries. He even
spotted several sockeye carcasses downstream.
“It’s
heartbreaking to watch animals dying unnaturally,” he said. “And worse,
thinking about the cause of it. This is a human caused problem, and it really
makes me think about the future.”
In the
video, the salmon can be seen with what looks to be fuzzy white patches, which
is likely a fungal infection that appears when salmon become stressed from hot
water.
Don Sampson,
a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and an
advisory board member for the Northwest Tribal Salmon Alliance, described
watching the video as akin to seeing his relatives die.
“That’s how
bad I felt,” said Sampson, who is also hereditary chief of the Walla Walla
tribe. “I mean I was near in tears when I saw it.”
He compared
it to 2015, when about 250,000 sockeye died in the Columbia River and its
tributaries after an especially hot summer.
Sampson
predicted that the situation was only going to get worse, and said it was vital
to move forward with a proposal of breaching four dams in eastern Washington
state.
“It’s
really appalling that we have solutions to save salmon, but we’re not doing
it,” said Sampson. “We don’t have the political will, our members of Congress
in the north-west don’t have the political strength or will to stand up to
protect salmon for future generations.”
VandenHeuvel
agreed that these types of scenes would continue to play out if officials did
not take direct action.
“I see this
as a deeply sad vision for our future. But I also see it as a call to action.
There’s mitigation measures we can take to save the salmon, to cool our
rivers,” he said. “And if this video doesn’t inspire some serious reflection,
then I don’t know what will.”
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