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. Factory trained
technicians, factory quality repairs
& craftmenship, frame
straightening rack, with laser
precision body alignment.
24-Hour Towing
Service,
Rental cars
available
No matter what happens to your
car, you can count on the Autobody
Repair specialists at Miller Ford
Nissan collision center to take care
of it from the smallest scratch to
the biggest dent.
541-475-6153
Open 7 days a week
Restaurant open
6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Lounge open
7 a.m. to midnight.
“Come try our new salad bar!
Need help with
Legal Aid Services of Oregon
provides free assistance to low-
income Oregonians in many civil
cases. Speak with an attorney
during drop-in hours 1 to 4 p.m.
legal problem?
on the first Monday of the month at
the Family Resources Center in
Warm Springs. Or call us at 385-
6944 Monday through Wednesday
between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
1
i