August 23, 2013 — Trinity River water will be released to protect salmon after a federal judge lifted his order Thursday afternoon, finding the additional flows critical to preventing a repeat of the massive fish kill from 2002.
"Releases are designed to prevent a potentially serious fish die off from impacting salmon populations entering the Klamath River estuary,” Judge Lawrence O'Neill concluded.
”There is no dispute and the record clearly reflects that the 2002 fish kill had severe impacts on commercial fishing interests, tribal fishing rights and the ecology, and that another fish kill would likely have similar impacts.”
John Corbett, senior legal counsel for Yurok Tribal Attorney's Office, said O'Neill cited Yurok Tribe fisheries biologist Josh Strange, who testified that Ichthyophthirius multifiliis — a fish disease commonly called “ich” — is more prevalent in warm, still water, and that an expected 272,000 returning Chinook salmon would likely meet lethal conditions if the flows were not released.
"Judge Lawrence O'Neill found that blocking the flows would do greater harm to the tribes and the fisheries, if an injunction was granted, than it would to the water districts,” Corbett said.
Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard