The last month has brought with it a wide variety of projects, all sharing the common goal of raising short-nose and lost river suckers, two species of fish native to the Klamath basin and listed as endangered. Here’s the overview of our main projects:
Draining a pond on the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge:
US Fish and Wildlife maintains a variety of ponds on the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge used for fish rearing. In past years larval suckers have been released into the largest of these ponds. In order to count the number of fish surviving and capture them in order to relocate them to another facility, the pond is drained every few years.
A Crisafulli pump being used to drain the pond.
As the water level lowered we used seine nets to catch fish. We caught suckers, which we put in buckets with bubblers to relocate, and also sacramento perch and fat head minnows, which we released. Once the water levels got low enough we waded through the muck to catch the remaining suckers with small dip nets.
Covered in mud after catching suckers.
By the end of the day we caught between 50 and 60 suckers ranging in size from around 3 to 14 inches. These fish were transported to another facility where they will be raised and kept as part of a refugial population.
The pond with only a little water left in the main channel.
Larval release:
A few weeks ago a biologist from the Coleman fish hatchery in California came to the Klamath basin and collected eggs and milt from lost river suckers. Around 1087 larva hatched from these eggs and were held for about a week at the fish hatchery before we picked them up and released them into a small pond on the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. We will raise these fish over the summer to add to the refugial population of lost river suckers.
Larval lost river suckers in a bag filled with water and oxygen for transport.
The small pond where we released the 1087 larval lost river suckers.
Dock in Upper Klamath Lake:
As another element of our fish rearing efforts we will be collecting larval suckers from a river that flows into Upper Klamath Lake and raising them in net pens in the lake. Over the past few weeks we have assembled plastic blocks into a large dock with four bays where we will hang nets and raise fish. Earlier this week we dragged the dock into the lake and anchored it in an area known to have good water quality. In the next few weeks we will collect larval fish and release them in these nets.
Dragging the dock out into Upper Klamath Lake.
The dock anchored in Upper Klamath Lake.
