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A Yurok Tribe fisheries biologist prepares to place juvenile Chinook from Iron Gate Hatchery in a live trap at the mouth of Cappell Creek. The Tribe contracted with Scott Foott of the Fish Health Center in Anderson, CA to analyze fish health response to water quality in the mouths of tributaries and in adjacent areas of the mainstem Klamath River. Cappell Creek is in the Lower Klamath. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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This photo shows a live trap placed at the mouth of Cappell Creek that held juvenile Chinook salmon from Iron Gate Hatchery. These traps were placed inside plumes of cold water contributed by tributaries and then in Klamath River water outside the plume. Scott Foott of the USFWS Northern California Fish Health Center assisted with fish health comparisons. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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This photo shows juvenile Chinook salmon congregated at the mouth of Bluff Creek on June 29, 2000 during the period when a major fish kill was occurring in the Klamath River. The cold water provides greater dissolved oxygen as well as decreased thermal stress. Yurok Tribe fisheries biologists documented very high concentrations of juvenile salmonids at the mouths of most cold water tributaries of the Klamath River during late June 2000. Steelhead seemed to dominate at the mouth of upstream tributaries such as Elk Creek, while at lower tributaries like Bluff Creek there were predominantly Chinook. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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Photo looking from beneath the bubble curtain of Bluff Creek as is spills in to the Klamath River. Fish are attracted to the bubble curtain not only because of elevated dissolved oxygen but also because it provides excellent overhead cover from predators. The fish are mostly juvenile Chinook, many originating from Iron Gate Hatchery. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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This photo shows an adult Chinook salmon as well as juvenile Chinook and steelhead holding in the cold water plume of Pecwan Creek on August 3, 2000. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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The photo was taken in the Klamath River at the mouth of Clear Creek and shows adult suckers holding in the cold water plume. Suckers are well adapted to warm water temperatures and the presence of these fish in the refugia suggests that water quality in the Klamath itself may have been very poor at the time of the photo. Summer 2000. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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This photo was taken in the Klamath River near the mouth of Pearch Creek above Orleans on June 29, 2000. The photo clarity was limited by the clarity of Klamath River water. The fish were predominantly Iron Gate Hatchery Chinook salmon. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.


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A dead juvenile Chinook on the Klamath River gravel bar at the mouth of Slate Creek. Dead fish were distributed along gravel bars and all along the edges of the stream or floating dead in the water in the last few days of June 2000. Photo courtesy of Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program, Water Management and Rights Protection Division, Weitchpec, CA.