Electrofishing used to monitor Central Oregon fisheries

Electrofishing is not your typical rod-and-reel type of fishing.

It’s a way for conservationists to study fish in waterways across Central Oregon.

On Tuesday, Portland General Electric workers were on a stretch of the Ochoco Creek in Prineville, stunning fish with an electric current, so they could pull them out and count them.

The electric current allows for the fish to be scooped into a net and placed into a bucket, so biologists can measure, weigh and mark them, to see what type of fish population is in the stream.

PGE biologist Rebekah Burchell and her team make sure the salmon and steelhead that have been reintroduced into the creek are thriving.

Burchell said that’s important, not just for the ecosystem, but for recreation as well.

“We’ve seen really good signs with our reintroduction,” Burchell said. “You know, we’ve seen steelhead some back, we’ve seen Chinook come back, we had a high number of sockeye return to the Metolius River last year. What we do is based on good, sound science.”

Other agencies were out on the Deschutes River Tuesday, salvaging the fish stranded in the area before the river dries up.

Michael Tripp, a board member of the Deschutes Redband Chapter of Trout Unlimited, has been an advocate of the river for years now.

Tripp said he believes it’s important that people understand the river benefits not just the environment, but irrigation and agriculture as well.

“Restoring a healthy river has impacts far greater then enjoying fly-fishing on the upper river,” Tripp said. “Water quality and environmental quality has ramifications for many different areas.”

There are some, like Deschutes Basin Watermaster Jeremy Giffin, who are hopeful that the fish salvage soon will be a thing of the past.

He said he hopes that by pumping in more cubic feet of water of per second, soon the river will stop drying up in the fall and winter.

“This winter, we will be running 100 cfs (cubic feet per second) out of Wickiup Reservoir, but in the future, if we go higher — say, 200 cfs — the fish salvage probably won’t need to happen,” Giffin said. “We’ll probably keep this channel wetted throughout the winter season.”

Giffin said he hopes that by doing that, the river level will stay more consistent year-round.