PGE fish scientists are tracking the whereabouts of the first adult salmon released into Lake Billy Chinook. The fish are implanted with tags that send out an identifying radio signal. A map shows the locations of the fish released this summer in the upper Deschutes, Crooked and Metolius rivers.

Read the rest of this entry

On July 11, the first sockeye returning to the Pelton Fish Trap was radio tagged, and passed upstream into Lake Billy Chinook. This was the first wild sockeye returning from the Pacific passed into the reservoir in about 45 years. This week, three more returned and were passed, and one of them was radio tagged. All four of these fish bore the right maxillary mark placed on them by the PGE fish passage crew as they emigrated from Lake Billy Chinook through the new fish facility in spring 2010.

Read the rest of this entry

There he was, a Chinook salmon with a history that involved me, a 30-year dream and 16 years of hard work by a host of people. The fish looked much like the others swimming in the shaded concrete pond below Round Butte Dam, but this one was special. Like the others caught in the Pelton Fish Trap this May, it was beautiful, about 12 pounds, bright and shiny, strong and thick from two years gorging itself in the rich Pacific. The difference was that this one was missing part of the small bone along the right side of its mouth.

Read the rest of this entry.

A 12-pound male salmon, one of thousands of Chinook that biologists and volunteers released into the Upper Deschutes tributaries above the Pelton-Round Butte Hydro Project in 2008, has made history. It’s the first fish to return.

A fish with its right maxillary bone clipped — a marker indicating it was released in the Upper Deschutes tributaries, swam into the Pelton fish trap on May 25.

Read the rest of this entry.

We have now captured over 100,000 fish at the new downstream fish facility at Round Butte Dam. The numbers of salmon smolts (juvenile salmon migrating to the ocean) entering the new fish facilities increased dramatically during March and April, with several days when more than 7,000 salmon and steelhead were caught. The fish passage crew worked overtime to get them sorted, marked, transported to the lower Deschutes River and released safely to continue their journey to the Pacific.

Read the rest of this entry.

It all seems surreal. I’ve been a biologist at the Pelton Round Butte Project since 1971. That was only a few years after we learned that the original downstream fish passage system was unworkable because fish couldn’t find the outlet. The fact that we have completed the new selective water withdrawal intake and downstream fish facility at Round Butte Dam – and are passing salmon smolts downstream – is amazing!

Read the rest of this entry.

In February 2008, biologists and volunteer released approximately 150,000 spring Chinook fry into the upper MetoliusRiver Basin. (See March 17, 2008, blog entry). The fish were released in small groups along the shoreline, in quiet areas with hiding cover, where small salmon fry normally rear. Read the rest of this entry »

I received a comment on the blog last week from Bob MacRostie, the retired manager of the Deschutes Valley Water District that supplies drinking water to the Culver-Madras area. He wished us success but was was wondering just how effective this project was likely to be at restoring fish runs above the dams.

We are also hoping for the best with new Selective Water Withdrawal Project. Before the original Pelton Round Butte Project was constructed, there were runs totaling hundreds… Read the rest of this entry »

Megan Hill, our fish research lead biologist, has been studying the effect of feeding Chinook fry for a short period prior to their release. Do they grow faster? Do they have a better survival rate?
To find out, she and her assistants arranged for 10 days of extra feeding at Round Butte Hatchery for half of the spring Chinook that were planted in the upper Metolius Basin in late February 2008. The other half - about 75,000 fish - were released right from the incubators to begin feeding after release. Read the rest of this entry »

As we assess the effectiveness of the new fish passage system, we will need to know how many steelhead and spring Chinook smolts successfully pass through Lake Billy Chinook and the fish collection facility. To do this, we will be operating several downstream-migrant fish traps in the tributaries to Lake Billy Chinook to capture and tag these smolts. continue reading…