Disease kills 150,000 hatchery fish

Disease stemming from warm water in the North Umpqua River has killed 150,000 hatchery steelhead at a Roseburg area fish hatchery, marking the facility's second mass die-off this summer.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife alerted the public Friday to the deaths among its summer steelhead stock, blaming an historic drought that has heated the Umpqua's water and allowed pathogens to thrive.

LINK (via: Oregon Live)

Just one more for the road.....

State police say the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife driver who crashed his state-owned tanker truck Tuesday, spilling a load of 11,000 juvenile salmon on the McKenzie Highway near Walterville, may have been under the influence of alcohol.

Ray C. Lewis, 45, of Umpqua, had an initial medical blood alcohol level of 0.29 percent, Oregon State Police Lt. Josh Brooks said today.

That’s more than three times the legal limit for a passenger-vehicle driver and nearly 7 times the legal limit for someone using a commercial driver’s license.

LINK (via: The Register Guard)

Wild Fish Works: Oregon Coast (Official Trailer)

Wild Fish Works: Oregon Coast (Official Trailer) from Russ Schnitzer on Vimeo.

Wild salmon and steelhead are important to more than just anglers. They represent significant social, cultural and economic ties up and down the Oregon coast. Over the past year, Alan Moore and I worked to explore a few different examples of these connections. Wild Fish Works: Oregon Coast is the result. We hope that angling and non-angling viewers will consider their own connections to wild fish where they live, and explore the unique ways these fish manifest themselves across regions, communities and landscapes.

Wild Fish Works' message is non-political and positive: Where people, businesses, communities, conservation and landowners work together, Oregon's wild salmon, steelhead and trout heritage WORKS. Notably, the specification of "wild" fish in this context is NOT an anti-hatchery statement; rather, we call for more focus on the importance and attainability of conserving the wild fish reserves we still have, and the positive returns that even small investments in wild fish conservation can bring for Oregon. This is the "how" of Wild Fish Works.

Agriculture and ranch lands, and other resource-dependent businesses don't need to change hands, alter operations dramatically, or become outdoor recreation playgrounds for the urban crowd to foster wild fish. They can stay largely the same with wild fish using them, and perhaps even enhance values and pay quality-of-life dividends for people willing to welcome the fish. The fish pretty much take care of the rest."