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3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2015 To keep water safe, task force is vigilant Surfrider helps monitor water quality By DANI PALMER EO Media Group CANNON BEACH — Clean water is crucial to ecological health. It’s why Jesse Jones with the Surfrid- er Foundation’s Blue Water Task Force talked about the Ecola Creek Watershed’s health during a Haystack Rock Awareness Program lecture last week at the Can- non Beach Library. Jones has worked in many aspects of water, both scien- ti¿c and artistic. She grew up on the Nehalem River. “The quality of water de- pends upon who needs it to live,” she said. “Salmon need cold water to reproduce, so testing is done to determine the temperature. That is done here in Ecola. Humans need clean water to drink and bathe, so testing is done to determine bacteria levels. Plants, people and animals need clean water to grow, so testing is done to determine all sorts of things.” Scientists look at factors like oxygen, algae, metals and sediments. Monitoring limited what’s in the water, so we have to continue to do it,” she said. “But I think we can do it a lot more ef¿ciently.” She added there should be conversations about how to do so and who should do it. The Oregon Department Volunteers needed of Environmental Quali- Surfrider needs more ty only monitors four sites in Clatsop County and the volunteers to assist in water Beach Action Value used to testing. The Blue Water Task determine whether water is Force has four regular volun- teers and 12 total, safe to swim in or Jones said. ingest will be low- Many are retir- ered in 2017, add- ees. She said coor- ing more strain. dinators like their Jones said the state knowledge, but just doesn’t have also need youth to the money to do carry on the tasks. more — that com- “I think educa- munities need to do tion is a big part of more work. it,” she said. Jones said she Jesse Some in the au- thinks Timothy Jones dience suggested Morton’s book partnering with “Ecology Without Nature” makes a good point: local schools. If they had humans need to focus on do- more volunteers, Jones said, ing more. But she disagreed they could do additional with him on data being a testing. Some want the stormwater waste of time. “If we aren’t looking in running into drains and rivers the water to see what’s there, tested, but it takes many re- then we aren’t going to know sources. back in Ecola Creek looks different from the outfall water. Outfall water has ani- mal feces, trash deposits and more that’s run into it. Pesti- cides are also a water quality concern. Creek pretty cold Submitted Photo Salmon swimming in Ecola Creek. Many streams are too warm for salmon spawning, but Ecola Creek appears to be healthy. Bob Lundy samples for enterococcus bacteria in Eco- la Creek and both the Blue Water Task Force and Ore- gon Beach Monitoring Pro- gram test at the outfalls and in shorewater. Lundy said water farther The Ecola Creek Water- shed Council does the mon- itoring of water temperature. Many streams are too warm for salmon spawning, but Ecola Creek appears to be healthy, Jones said. “Ecola Creek is pretty cold, which is great,” she added. There are some spots above 70 degrees, but testers aren’t sure of the causes. They are working on cor- relation studies. Jones said there are multi- ple steps the public can take to assist. In addition to vol- unteering for the Blue Water Task Force or joining the wa- tershed council, she said res- idents could help protect the creek by paying attention to physical characteristics and buying reusable water con- tainers. Gillnetters: Managers hopeful for next year Continued from Page 1A Fishermen earlier this year called the new policy a “nail in the cof¿n,” anticipating that it would soon make lit- tle economic sense for them to continue ¿shing Willapa Bay under the policy, which is supposed to become more restrictive in coming years. Season curtailed Of the 27 commercial ¿sh- ing days scheduled on Willapa Bay’s river systems this fall, gillnetters ended up only ¿sh- ing 10. Landings of Chinook salmon were also higher than anticipated, contributing to this reduction of ¿shing days. 8nder the new policy, ¿sh- ermen were given a 20 per- cent harvest rate on natural origin Chinook — salmon that have not had their adi- pose ¿ns clipped by hatchery employees and could be wild ¿sh or the descendants of for- mer hatchery ¿sh that have “strayed” and no longer return to the hatchery, according to state ¿shery managers. Once this percentage is neared, ¿shery managers typ- ically re-evaluate how and when gillnetters ¿sh, often shifting the focus of the ¿sh- ery to another salmon species. On Willapa Bay, and espe- cially under the new policy, the focus would normally shift to coho, but the problem was that this year coho came back at only 42 percent of what was forecast. And, with the already high impacts to natural-origin Chinook, ¿shery managers did not want to risk further acci- dental catch of Chinook by shifting ¿shermen to another species. So commercial gill- netting closed in November in the Willapa Bay area. Fishery managers also closed the ma- rine recreational ¿shery and restricted a freshwater ¿shery to hatchery streams. According to preliminary data released by the state, gill- netters caught a season total of 4,858 Chinook, 1,935 coho and 2,803 chum in the Willa- pa Bay Non-Indian Commer- cial Gillnet Salmon Fishery from Sept. 6 through Oct. 10. Gillnetters blast policies Willapa Bay Gillnetters Association President Bob Lake ¿shed only a handful of days this season, with poor re- sults. He believes the policy is wrong, both in its scope and for the area. The new policy’s stated goals are to reduce impacts to natural-origin Chinook and shift commercial ¿shery im- pacts to coho while minimiz- ing chum mortalities. In fu- ture years, this will also mean further reducing the percent- age of natural-origin Chinook gillnetters can catch while also reducing the number of ¿sh produced by the Naselle Hatchery. While the policy was out for public comment this spring, Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Miranda Wecker and other state ¿shery managers said these steps were critical to rebuild wild runs of salmon in Willapa Bay. But ¿sher- men and processors protested, saying the salmon ¿shing in the bay is dependent on high hatchery production and that no true wild runs exist. Lake recalls past efforts to restore wild runs in these sys- tems — and how they failed. “We’re at the mercy of people who don’t know any- thing about Willapa Bay,” he said. A lawsuit ¿led against the Department of Fish and Wild- life by the gillnetters associ- ation claiming the policy is misguided and adversely af- fects ¿shermen is still moving forward after being re¿led in Thurston County. to try to record the scope of the die-off. Elsewhere, in southern Oregon and eastern Washington, hatcheries ex- perienced massive die-offs, well beyond the fall run die- offs recorded near the Naselle Hatchery. This year’s count of 10,000 was highly unusual, indicative of unusual condi- tions, Thiesfeld said. It does Better luck next year Meanwhile, state ¿shery managers are hopeful for next year’s seasons on Willapa Bay. In an average year they expect to see around 1,000 — maybe less — dead ¿sh below the Naselle Hatchery. The number of ¿sh noticed by passers-by led to the depart- ment doing a detailed count Consult a PROFESSIONAL has been a long Q: It time since I last visited the dentist. What should I do? EO Media Group/File Photo JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR DMD, FAGD Salmon return to the Nemah Hatchery on Willapa Bay. 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