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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 2009)
August 27, 20 0 9 Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon Page 8 Lamprey larvae studied for clues to decline (AP) — Lampreys have sur vived for 350 million years. They’ve adapted to the com ing and going o f ice ages, conti nental drift and predators that predate the dinosaurs. Yet, re searchers attribute an “alarming drop” in a West Coast popula tion o f the ancient creature to a comparably recent develop ment: Us. Dams, cities and agriculture have all taken a toll, research ers believe. “T h e fre sh w a te r h a b ita t where they spawn and rear has been changed and degraded w ith urbanization, agriculture and various land-use practices,” said H ow ard Schaller, project leader o f the Colum bia River fisheries office for the U.S. Fish an d W ildlife S erv ice in Vancouver. E xperts believe the jawless eel-like fish is an important build ing block in the marine-riverine food web. Sea lions, for example, his torically sated themselves on the high oil content o f the lamprey’s tissue rath er than devouring many endangered salmon to get the same nutritional value. Im m ense num bers o f lam prey once nourished the entire food web, from bugs to bears, with nutrients from the ocean. T hat alone should be suffi cient reason to conserve lam prey, said Bob H eihith, hydro program co o rd in ato r fo r the Columbia Intertribal Fish Com mission. Lamprey may be the less attractiv e cousin to the N orthw est’s iconic salmon on the glamour scale, but Heinith said their im portance can’t be underes timated. “They’re the neglected spe cies,” H einith said, “but prob ably the foundation for every thing.” O n a recent day at Willamette Park in Portland, Schaller joined fellow Fish and Wildlife Service research ers G reg Silver and Brian Davis. The trio intended to do some fishing. While American Indian tribal members plucked adult lamprey far upriver at Willamette Falls, Schaller’s team attem pted the trickier task o f finding lamprey larvae - known as ammocoetes (pronounced am-o-seats) — en sconced in the river bottom. Previous studies have mainly involved researchers wading in tin y stream s, teasin g ammocoetes out o f the muddy stream bottom s with backpack- m ounted electrofishing gear. Over the past year, research ers have been using an indus trial-sized electrofisher lowered fro m a m o to rb o a t to fin d a m m o co etes in th e m u ch broader and deeper Columbia and Willamette rivers. “This is the first time anybody has found ammocoetes in main stem tributaries,” Schaller said. Researchers w ant to know whether the lamprey larvae tend to cluster in certain areas or whether they seem to be distrib uted more randomly. They determ ine the age by measuring their length and sort ing out oceangoing Pacific lam prey from western brook lam prey that spend their lives within the river. It’s n o t easy to find larvae, each barely the size o f a sewing needle, in a river as big and broad as the Willamette. Using a probabilistic sampling sy stem , re s e a rc h e rs have divvied the river’s lower 27 miles below the waterfall in O regon City into some 30,000 squares m easu rin g 30 by 30 m eters each. T h e p ro g ra m selects sam ple squares on a random basis, then re-sorts them to en- Adarmed by the trend, tribal groups are pushing fo r major improvements at eight major dams along the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. sure they’re spread across a wide area. A d u lt lam prey co u n ted at dams have dwindled in recent years. Yet federal authorities have declined petitio n s to p ro tect th em u n d er th e E n d an g ered Species A ct partly because so little is known about them. The juvenile sampling surveys on the W illam ette and C olum bia are intended to see whether lamprey larvae make use o f heavily in dustrialized sections o f the Co lumbia River basin. “W hether they’re still living to maturity, we can’t say,” Schaller said. O n th is day, sc ie n tists sam pled th e W illam ette near downtown Portland. T he researchers em barked on a m otorboat equipped with a microwave-size “electrofisher” known as a bell. M o u n ted to a m echanical hoist, the bell includes two stain less steel plates capable o f de livering a sm all jo lt in to the muddy river bottom . Silver de scribed the minute-long jolt as an irritant that will goose the tiny am m ocoetes o u t o f the m ud and into a 4-inch-diameter suc tion pipe attached to the bell. Researcher Silver, glancing at a GPS device, piloted the boat to the first square on his list di re ctly u n d e r th e M o rriso n Bridge. Davis began to lower the State preparing for swine flu season (AP) — As many as two out o f five Oregonians are expected to come down with the flu this fall and winter, prom pting the state to prepare for the possi bility o f an epidemic that would close schools and threaten the economy, officials said Friday. O ne o f the top concerns is a possible outbreak o f the H1N1 flu virus, commonly called swine flu, which has been blamed for nearly 500 deaths nationally since the start o f the last flu season, including 11 in Oregon. Gov. Ted Kulongoski opened a statewide summit on the flu threat last in Salem with a plea to O regonians to be ready to take care o f themselves at home to avoid straining limited health care resources during a major outbreak. “Families and communities have to develop plans to be able to take care o f them selves,” Kulongoski said. “I f you expect the governm ent to be there for every single family, it's n ot pos sible.” H e also said the state is urg ing companies and small busi ness owners to encourage em ployees to stay hom e if they come down with the flu to pre vent its spread. “I f you have 40 percent o f the w ork force o f the state at some time in the next six to eight m onths coming down with the flu, you’re going to substantially impact our productivity and our ability to recover from the cur rent economic crisis, so this is very, very serious,” Kulongoski said. But the governor made clear that help will be available from state and federal agencies which will respond at w hatever level necessary to battle an outbreak or an epidemic, including assis tance from the Oregon National Guard. Health officials say infections from swine flu, like the seasonal flu, can range from mild to se vere. Symptoms are a high fe ver, cough, sore throat, chills, body aches and fatigue. anchor. “It's 40 feet deep here,” Sil v er said, as th e b o a t d rifted slighdy. “Now, it’s 45 feet.” “We’re running o ut o f line here,” Davis shouted. Silver m ade a slight adjust m ent, m oving the b o a t away from a deep spot near one o f the bridge abutments. Satisfied with the location, Davis set the ■anchor an d S ch aller b eg an /u n sp o o lin g th e b ell 27 feet straight down to the bottom . A small jolt, about 7 volts, jiggled the mud just enough to tease out any ammocoetes that happened to reside in the area o f river bottom covered by the bell. For two minutes, the suction hose spewed water and debris through a filter box affixed to the outside edge o f the boat. There were plenty o f tiny sticks, b ut no lamprey. “This kind o f sampling re q u ire s a lo t o f p a tie n c e ,” Schaller said. F ifteen m in u tes later, the crew repeated the drill in a 35- fo o t-d e e p sq u are lo c a te d roughly midway betw een the H a w th o rn e an d M arq uam bridges. Davis spotted it first. “G o t one!” A wriggling ammocoete, the only one cap tu red in a half- dozen samples witnessed by re p o rte rs , s lith e re d halfw ay through the tiny metal grating o f the filter box before Davis cupped it with his hands. After dipping it in an anes thetic, the researchers clipped a fin for laboratory testing, mea sured it at 56 millimeters and identified it as a resident west ern brook lamprey. A fter giving it time to wake up in a bucket o f river w ater, they tu rn ed it loose. Pacific lamprey populations Tribal Council agenda items have diminished across the re gion. Although dams are believed to be a m ajor im pedim ent to lamprey in the Columbia River basin — about half o f adult lam prey don’t pass the fish ladders designed for high-energy salmon and steelhead — their numbers have also fallen in coastal rivers with fewer dams. Schaller hypothesized that the lamprey suffer from the cumu lative effect o f m ankind’s im print on the natural landscape. Because lamprey spend years filter-feeding in the muddy river bottom as larvae, they may be especially vulnerable to pollu tion. “T he p ro b lem now, is we have anthropogenic impacts on such a wide range across their distribution that, at least what we’re observing in the lower 48, is w hat appears to be an alarm ing d ro p in th eir n um bers,” Schaller said. The numbers have bounced around on the Columbia River, fro m 379j000 c o u n te d at B onneville D am in 1969, to 19,000 in 2000, to 117,027 in 2003. H owever, scientists be lieve the general trend is down ward.- Last year’s count o f 14,500 was the low est ever, and this year is lagging behind even that. Alarmed by the trend, tribal groups are pushing for m ajor im provem ents at eight m ajor dams along the Columbia and lower Snake rivers. T hey have also suggested transporting lamprey to artifi cially seed upstream tributaries. Heinith, with the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commis sion, said the tribes are even exploring the possibility o f res cuing lamprey by raising them in hatcheries. “I definitely think it’s a crisis,” Heinith said. The following are items set for Tribal Council con sideration: Wednesday, Aug. 25 9 a.m. to noon: 2010 bud get session with Ray Pot ter and Michelle Stacona. 1 :3 0 -3 p .m .: W arm Springs Forest Products Industries annual audit. R ay P otter, LouTorgeson. 3- 4 p.m.: Telco update with JeffAnspach. 4- 4:30 p.m. Business. Thursday, August 27: 9 a.m. to noon: Tribal attorney’s update. 1401 Process, Port of Ogan, Arlington, BIA re structure, Pelton, allot ment issue, fish accords update. Friday, August 28: U n iv e rs ity o f O regon P re s id e n t R ichard LaRiviere. Saturday, August 29: F ish in g at W h iske y Dicks, Richard LaRiviere, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, August 31: 11 a.m. to noon: CRITFC executive director, Paul Lumley. (Agenda items are sub ject to change by Tribal Council.) To rea ch th e S p ily a y Tym oo, please call 553-2307, or 553-2210. The next deadline to sub mit items for publication in the Spilyay is Friday, Sept. 4. Thank you! MILLER FORD-NISSAN CvlUiion Center Inter-Industry Conference On Auto Collision Repair (l-CAR) A utom otive Service E xcellence (ASE) C ertified COME SEE US FIRST We repair all makes and models! Let us help negotiate your vehicle damage TH E C T A fZ Of I Restaurant and Lounge We honor all insurance comp estimates. 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