Wednesday, August 3, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
9
Research buoy placed in Suttle Lake
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
On July 7 a new piece
of equipment was anchored
in the eastern part of Suttle
Lake. It’s another important
part of the continuing conser-
vation effort to bring sockeye
salmon back to their ancestral
spawning grounds and under-
stand what’s going on above
and under the lake’s surface.
Frank Conte, a retired
USO limnology professor
and founder of the organiza-
tion that is responsible for the
buoy — HLAAF (High Lake
Aquatic Alliance Foundation)
— is the man behind the
buoy. He, HLAAF members
and partners put a great deal
of effort, money, engineering
and dedication into creating
the monitoring buoy now
anchored in the lake.
The organization asks that
lake users please stay away
from the buoy. Most of the
aquatic monitoring equip-
ment attached to the buoy
is underwater, while the
mooring lines are spread out
from the buoy in about 63
feet of water. Approaching
it with a boat could damage
the securing equipment and
set off a snowball effect of
destruction.
If you would like to know
more of what’s going on and
get the word from the buoy’s
handlers visit https://hlaaf.
wordpress.com, or attend the
next meeting of HLAAF.
Efforts to save sock-
eye salmon got into high
gear around 2012 with the
removal of dams and other
objects that were block-
ing sockeye from reaching
Suttle Lake, like the culverts
that were under Road 12.
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Forest Service fishery biolo-
gist Nate Dachtler and his
crew modified several of the
obstructions and other fea-
tures that prevented salmon
from reaching the lake.
Sockeye
salmon
(Oncorhynchus nerka), aka
red salmon, or blueback
salmon, is an anadromous
fish found in the northern
Pacific Ocean and rivers
such as the Columbia. Native
peoples and the European-
American pioneers depended
on them for food.
They can grow to three
feet in length and must
spawn in freshwater lakes,
streams and rivers where
they remain until they are
ready to migrate to the ocean.
Sockeye use patterns of
well-lit, open surface waters
in the lake, away from the
shore. This is the main pho-
tosynthetic body of the lake.
Because sockeye can change
their position in the water
column, also adjusting tim-
ing and length of feeding and
choice of prey to minimize
the likelihood of predation,
it is vital to understand these
factors — which the HLAAF
monitoring buoy will help to
do.
Sockeye, unlike other spe-
cies of Pacific salmon, feed
extensively on zooplankton,
organisms drifting in the
lake. Individual zooplankton
are usually microscopic, but
some, such as copepods and
aquatic insect larvae, as well
as flying adult insects and
shrimp, are larger and visible
to the naked eye.
It’s their time in freshwa-
ter that has prompted the con-
servation efforts now under-
way by HLAAF and their
partners. Sockeye salmon
may exhibit many different
life histories, but the majority
being anadromous — where
juvenile salmon migrate from
freshwater lakes and streams
to the ocean before returning
as adults to their natal water
to spawn.
It’s a long way from
the Pacific Ocean, up the
Columbia, then up the
Deschutes, then up the
Metolius and finally into
creeks and lakes, that the
salmon must negotiate to
reach their home waters of
Suttle Lake. Not to mention
the dams and other restric-
tions along the way. The PGE
transfer device at the Pelton
Dam area is ingenious at
helping sockeye get back to
their ancestral waters.
Upon reaching their home
waters, the fish must have the
conditions that will not only
provide habitat for spawn-
ing, but the biological quali-
ties that will keep the fry and
fingerlings going and pro-
vide the necessary biologi-
cal and physical attributes to
get them past all they have to
confront to reach the ocean.
The team of people and
organizations to make all
that happen is varied and
dedicated. The Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs
people, PGE, USFS, ODFW,
and HLAAF volunteers and
members work together to
help create the conditions
that will provide safe passage
for the sockeye, both ways —
and at the same time help the
sockeye’s landlocked cous-
ins, kokanee, to survive in
Suttle Lake.
The new buoy now
anchored in Suttle Lake is
sending electronic data that
will be available to all the
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photo by conrad Weiler
high Lake Aquatic Alliance Foundation monitoring buoy anchored in Suttle
Lake.
partners involved on under-
As an example of some of
standing aquatic conditions the conditions of the lake that
within the lake. Water tem- must be understood for future
perature; conductivity; pH; salmon dependence: In 2003
chlorophyll (algae); dis- the kokanee—a land-locked
solved oxygen; and visible cousin of the sockeye—
light (measuring sunlight at measured about 18 inches
the surface and at the five- as adults, but in 2016 adults
foot depth, which will pro- were found to be only five
vide information as to the to six inches long. The buoy
visibility of fry and phyto- will help provide vital infor-
plankton seen by these ani- mation as to why this is hap-
mals as a food source) are all pening, and (hopefully) help
monitored.
correct it.
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