The following is a You Tube video I put together after a dive in the Clackamas River, Oregon at High Rocks in Gladstone, Oregon on July 2, 2015. Salmon in Trouble shows dramatically the result of low stream flows leading to increased water temperatures, which places the salmon on their run up the Willamette, Clackamas and Columbia rivers in jeopardy.
[video=youtube;EE54JwgV2Dw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE54JwgV2Dw[/video]
On TuesdayJune 30, 2015 I dove High Rocks again. I had dropped some weights on Monday, and hoped to recover them on Tuesday morning. But the weights were gone for my Nautilus CVS. I had not recognized that I had jettisoned them just prior to the dive, and it was in shallow water. So someone got 16 pounds of lead weights (four) which had been fishing weights. Now, I need to convert more fishing weights to my Nautilus CVS weights by melting them down and putting them into the mold. I went ahead and dove, using very vintage gear (my Healthways hybrid regulator, with only a J-valve).
I found the area that my red-sided shiners were spawning, and while they were there, they were not in their spawning colors. So my primary objective for this dive was to witness and video the spawning of red-sided shiners. Additionally, I had heard that there were some salmon being killed by higher temperatures in the Clackamas River. So I wanted also to investigate this possibility. This dive was two days later, on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
As I was entering the water, I noted two dead salmon floating near my entrance point. Several more were in the back-current in the river. I saw one jump too! So the salmon were there. I therefore decided to look at the eddie behind the island as I dove. I dove my Trieste II double hose regulator, my shorty wet suit with a hood (so my helmet with the GoPro on it would fit), and twin 45 cylinders.
I noted one salmon dead in the eddie, and so headed downstream. Across the river, just before the rapid coming down beside the island, I found the submerged tree again (it's been there for years now). Hanging from a root was the remains of a female salmon, with its guts open so that I could see the egg mass protruding into the water. This salmon had not had a chance to spawn. I went under the rapids, and found the site of the red-sided shiners for mating. The red-sided shiners were again gathered, and a few were with the red sides that meant they were about to spawn, but most did not have the red sides yet. But they were gathered there, and getting ready to spawn. Then I noted a dead salmon in the distance, and started swimming toward it. I had taken my helmet off, and was filming myself with the red-side shiners when I noticed this, and so started swimming toward the dead salmon. As I got close, I saw it was not alone in death. There were about seven more behind it. So I videoed them, then put the helmet down behind the far one and videoed myself picking it up, so as to show the actual size of these huge Chinook. I then swam further downstream, and noted several more dead salmon.
Turning around, I swam back over these dead fish, to get back to where the red-sided shiners were gathered for spawning, hoping to see spawning activity. As I was observing these, another salmon came by in the current, but it was still alive and making feeble swimming motions while belly-up. It bumped into the first salmon I had seen, and stayed there, expiring. I swam over the dead fish again, then back again and noted the dying salmon still trying to swim downstream, but still belly-up. It was heartbreaking to see this.
I continued downstream, noted several other salmon dead, and finally exited at my exit point below the bridge. To me this was a really heart-wrenching dive.
I talked to ODFW's Public Information Officer, Rick Suart, and he talked with the biologists while we were on the phone (ODFW is the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife). It was the consensus of the biologists that these were Willametter River salmon, trying to make it up the Willamette to the McKenzie River, but diverting into the Clackamas River to escape the hot temperatures of the Willamette River. But the Clackamas River was also dropping in water level, and heating up in the hot weather. When I told Mr. Suart that the lifeguards had measured the river temperature at High Rocks at 72 degrees F, they said that the salmon start having problems at about 60 degrees, and at that high temperature (72 degrees) they not only cannot get enough oxygen from the water, but become very susceptible to infections. My Suunto Cobra dive computer says that at depth, the water temperature was 70 degrees F. I noted the splotches in the sides of the fish I had observed too. I'm currently editing the video, and will give it to the ODFW soon. I may also send the video to a local news station.
SeaRat
[video=youtube;EE54JwgV2Dw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE54JwgV2Dw[/video]
On TuesdayJune 30, 2015 I dove High Rocks again. I had dropped some weights on Monday, and hoped to recover them on Tuesday morning. But the weights were gone for my Nautilus CVS. I had not recognized that I had jettisoned them just prior to the dive, and it was in shallow water. So someone got 16 pounds of lead weights (four) which had been fishing weights. Now, I need to convert more fishing weights to my Nautilus CVS weights by melting them down and putting them into the mold. I went ahead and dove, using very vintage gear (my Healthways hybrid regulator, with only a J-valve).
I found the area that my red-sided shiners were spawning, and while they were there, they were not in their spawning colors. So my primary objective for this dive was to witness and video the spawning of red-sided shiners. Additionally, I had heard that there were some salmon being killed by higher temperatures in the Clackamas River. So I wanted also to investigate this possibility. This dive was two days later, on Thursday, July 2, 2015.
As I was entering the water, I noted two dead salmon floating near my entrance point. Several more were in the back-current in the river. I saw one jump too! So the salmon were there. I therefore decided to look at the eddie behind the island as I dove. I dove my Trieste II double hose regulator, my shorty wet suit with a hood (so my helmet with the GoPro on it would fit), and twin 45 cylinders.
I noted one salmon dead in the eddie, and so headed downstream. Across the river, just before the rapid coming down beside the island, I found the submerged tree again (it's been there for years now). Hanging from a root was the remains of a female salmon, with its guts open so that I could see the egg mass protruding into the water. This salmon had not had a chance to spawn. I went under the rapids, and found the site of the red-sided shiners for mating. The red-sided shiners were again gathered, and a few were with the red sides that meant they were about to spawn, but most did not have the red sides yet. But they were gathered there, and getting ready to spawn. Then I noted a dead salmon in the distance, and started swimming toward it. I had taken my helmet off, and was filming myself with the red-side shiners when I noticed this, and so started swimming toward the dead salmon. As I got close, I saw it was not alone in death. There were about seven more behind it. So I videoed them, then put the helmet down behind the far one and videoed myself picking it up, so as to show the actual size of these huge Chinook. I then swam further downstream, and noted several more dead salmon.
Turning around, I swam back over these dead fish, to get back to where the red-sided shiners were gathered for spawning, hoping to see spawning activity. As I was observing these, another salmon came by in the current, but it was still alive and making feeble swimming motions while belly-up. It bumped into the first salmon I had seen, and stayed there, expiring. I swam over the dead fish again, then back again and noted the dying salmon still trying to swim downstream, but still belly-up. It was heartbreaking to see this.
I continued downstream, noted several other salmon dead, and finally exited at my exit point below the bridge. To me this was a really heart-wrenching dive.
I talked to ODFW's Public Information Officer, Rick Suart, and he talked with the biologists while we were on the phone (ODFW is the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife). It was the consensus of the biologists that these were Willametter River salmon, trying to make it up the Willamette to the McKenzie River, but diverting into the Clackamas River to escape the hot temperatures of the Willamette River. But the Clackamas River was also dropping in water level, and heating up in the hot weather. When I told Mr. Suart that the lifeguards had measured the river temperature at High Rocks at 72 degrees F, they said that the salmon start having problems at about 60 degrees, and at that high temperature (72 degrees) they not only cannot get enough oxygen from the water, but become very susceptible to infections. My Suunto Cobra dive computer says that at depth, the water temperature was 70 degrees F. I noted the splotches in the sides of the fish I had observed too. I'm currently editing the video, and will give it to the ODFW soon. I may also send the video to a local news station.
SeaRat
