September 2002 Klamath River fish kill: preliminary analysis of contributing factors
California Department of Fish and Game; Northern California - North Coast Region. 2003. September 2002 Klamath River fish kill: preliminary analysis of contributing factors. California Department of Fish and Game
Excerpts from document; "This report provides a preliminary analysis of factors leading to the September 2002 fish kill and compares 2002 and other low flow years in the Klamath River when major fish kills were not observed. Factors examined by the CDFG include fall chinook salmon run size and timing, ambient atmospheric conditions and in-river environmental conditions. Because some information has yet to be compiled and analyzed, this report will not address the long term impacts of the fish kill on fisheries of the Klamath and Trinity rivers. The CDFG will address these impacts to the fishery at a later date. Estimates of fish killed are at a minimum 33,000 fish, mostly chinook. Fish entering the lower Klamath River during mid-September 2002 encountered low water flows and high water temperature (69 degrees Fahrenheit) These water conditions favored rapid development of a protozoan and a bacterial pathogen, which infected and killed fish."
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- California Department of Fish and Game; Northern California - North Coast Region
- Date of Issue
- 2003-01
- Publisher
- California Department of Fish and Game
- Units
- REDW
- Keywords
- Anadromous Fish, Chinook Salmon, Coastal Cutthroat Trout, Coho Salmon, Death, Disease, Fish Ecology, fish kill, Fish Studies, green sturgeon, King Salmon, Klamath River, Klamath River smallscale sucker, Mortality, Onchorhynchus kisutch, Onchorhynchus mykiss, Onchorhynchus tshawytscha, Pathogen, Pathology, Salmon, Sculpin, speckled dace, Steelhead Trout, Water Quality