Rescuers save hundreds of fish on Deschutes

Biologists and volunteers came together Friday morning to make a splash and save lives.

“The fish would perish if we didn’t get them out,” said Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife District Fish Biologist Brett Hodgson.

The goal of the outing was to avoid last year’s disaster, when thousands of fish died in a side channel of the Deschutes River near Lava Island Falls.

Last October, federal and state officials and volunteers scrambled to save as many fish as possible when it was discovered many were dead and more were dying on a side channel of the river.

Hodgson said although ODFW only found out about the problem last year, he suspects the fish kills have been happening on and off for years.

“Dependent upon water years and flow conditions in the winter,” Hodgson said. “All these pools will be de-watered here.”

It’s normal for this time of year –, when irrigation season ends, so do the higher flows through the channel. Now water from Wickiup Reservoir is being stored for the next crop season.

“This fish stranding issue is a result of water management,” Hodgson said. “That being said, as being the fish management agency, we still have a certain amount of responsibility to save as many fish as possible.”

So with their nets and buckets, that’s what ODFW, Forest Service and local fish organizations and volunteers did for several hours Friday, catching hundreds of fish in the danger zone of drying banks and releasing them in deeper waters.

But before the releases, they counted the fish, measured some and gave others radio chips for tracking.

Those fish will be tracked for the rest of their lives, as biologists study how they respond to the changing water levels.

“We’ll see if we can see where these fish are spawning in the spring and how they respond to these irrigation diversions,” said fish biologist Ryan Carrasco.

Biologists also got a surprise: Although they expected to rescue several large fish, most of the fish were very small — less than a year old.

Hodgson said he has two theories for why the big fish were nowhere to be found: Either a decision by water managers this year to lower water levels more gradually was successful at allowing fish to get through passages, or too many fish died last year and that section of river hasn’t had enough time to repopulate.

Hodgson said the group hopes to lead fish rescues each year in the future, but due to the challenge of the work and the ruggedness of the terrain, it might not be sustainable.

He said a long-term solution will involve working with regional water management officials to change how much water is diverted for irrigation.