theres more to declining sucker klamath lake 070112

There’s more to declining sucker

by Jerry Jones, Chiloquin, Herald and News letter to editor 6/29/12

He said up front he could not answer any policy questions. He described his job as being a fish counter. The newspaper apparently took its cue from him.

The government has followed a policy of willful ignorance when it might find evidence contrary to its goals in pushing the KBRA.

What became evident during Mr. Janney’s presentation is that juvenile suckers (JS) have not survived August for the past 10 years. During that time, the lake’s sucker population has declined 80 percent. The lower Williamson sucker nursery and the A canal fish screen has not saved one JS.

Despite this knowledge, the government has not assigned even one scientist to determine the cause of sucker mortality.

Why? A female sucker fish lays 250,000 eggs each spawn. If they determined the cause of sucker death, there would be no endangered suckers and the government would lose control over resource users.

Furthermore, all suckers in the lake are around 20 years old. The life span of the short-nosed sucker is about 25 years. Time is real short to find the cause of JS mortality.

Meanwhile, Victoria Clark’s research on the presence of oceangoing fish above Upper Klamath Lake found only 167 bone fragments in seven cave sites that covered a period of 7,000 years. Scientists have the ability to determine whether those bones are from Klamath River fish. The government has declined to make that determination.

KBRA manager, Dennis Lynch, wrote June 17, trumpeting the qualifications of KBRA scientists. Until the government quits practicing willful ignorance; his words are just so much flatulence giving both the KBRA and associated scientists a bad odor.

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