Breaking Waves

Heavy rain and melting snowpack that flooded Western Oregon last week turned creeks and rivers into broad, brown torrents that might look like bad news for fish. But an Oregon Sea Grant fisheries specialist says his research suggests the opposite.

Guillermo Giannico, a research professor in Oregon State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, has conducted studies showing that fish – especially native species – can find refuge and food in flooded grass-seed fields.

Giannico’s research grew out of a project by fellow OSU researcher Stan Gregory to map the historic path of the Willamette River. The Willamette and its many tributaries once were more complex, braided streams. Multiple channels dispersed the impact of flooding, but dams, housing developments and forest transition have since funneled many rivers into single channels that run fast and furious during floods.

Giannico and others wondered how fish adapted to the change. Floods have happened for thousands of years, he said, and fish traditionally escaped high water in the main river stems by moving to off-channel habitat.

Turns out they still do. During seasonal floods, researchers took a look at ditches, low-lying farmland and other spots that are above water most of the year. To their surprise, they found 14 fish species — 11 of them native.

“That’s high diversity for this area, more than I would have bet we were going to get,” Giannico said.

Giannico noted a couple implications from the findings. Salmon, steelhead and other native fish, he said, are keenly tuned to changes in light and water temperature, and move to sheltering habitat — even if it turns out to be a flooded grass seed field. Invasive fish, often warm-water species, don’t get it. They’re unable to respond to the clues. As a result, native fish get a temporary break from predation and competition for food.

“Floods have always been a dynamic part of the system, much the same way that snow is for elk in Yellowstone,” said Giannico  “Over time, animals will adapt to get the most out of their habitat. We have found that native fish have adjusted their behavior to use these floodplains, mostly in agricultural lands, to great benefit.”

Read more:

• Report in The Oregonian
• OSU news release
• The Life Aquatic in Flooded Fields (Oregon’s Agricultural Progress)

Oregon Sea Grant’s popular “Oregon Coast Quests” are the subject of an article in the October 28, 2011, edition of the weekly newspaper Oregon Coast Today.

Carmel Finley, an instructor in the OSU History Department, is receiving positive attention for her new book published by University of Chicago Press, All the Fish in the Sea – Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. One reviewer commented that the book “explodes the myths around MSY” (maximum sustainable yield) — a significant consideration since MSY is at the heart of modern American fisheries management. Another reviewer noted that “fisheries science and management are ripe for study by professional historians” and praised Finley’s book.

Locally, public radio station KLCC interviewed her, which was a role reversal for Finley, who was the Oregonian’s coastal correspondent for  years prior to graduate school and her doctorate at UC San Diego (where she received support from Sea Grant). Back in Oregon, OSG supported her to develop the Pacific Fishery History Project web site. She also contributed an article in OSG’s new salmon book, Pathways to Resilience, on “The Social Construction of Fishing, 1949.”

Check out the October issue of Oregon Coast magazine for a words-and-pictures retrospective of Oregon Sea Grant’s first 40 years, headlined on the magazine cover! Available now on newsstands; eventually on their Website.

Cummins Creek on the central Oregon coast is perhaps easy to miss. Where it enters into the ocean about three miles south of Yachats, it’s just a modest stream. But those who know it consider it a hidden gem, as Congress recognized in 1984 by protecting the forest that surrounds the creek in order to “preserve in a wilderness state the last remaining virgin stands of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and Douglas fir in Oregon’s coastal lands.”

This short video highlights not only the beauty of the place but the role of the Sitka spruce forests in both Oregon history and environmental understanding.

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The educational documentary, Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River, by Joe Cone of Oregon Sea Grant, will be shown at the Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitors Center auditorium, Monday, May 11, 6-7 p.m. The half-hour film will be introduced by Cone, and discussion will follow the screening. The award-winning film, previously aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting, is part of the 2009 Water Film Series, Newport Edition. Watch a short preview.

Loren Davis, the executive director of the Keystone Archaeological Research Fund, is the subject of a profile in the current issue of the OSU research magazine, Terra. The former Sea Grant graduate student’s excavation of a site at Oregon’s Cape Blanco in 2002 is captured in a short video produced by Joe Cone. The video was part of a series of lively short subjects on the theme, “The Fun of Science.”

OSU Mediaman Direct

Visitors to the Oregon coast may find a new publication from Oregon Sea Grant useful when strolling the docks or watching commercial fishers at work.

Boats of the Oregon Coast, a pocket-size field guide, depicts and describes 18 different fishing and service vessels seen along the Oregon coast. The booklet’s drawings, concise descriptions and size make it ideal for port and marina tours from Astoria to Brookings.

Also included in the 52-page booklet is a short history of Oregon fisheries, illustrated with historic photos and accompanied by a timeline of important dates in the development of Oregon’s commercial fishing industry.

Copies may be purchased for $4.95 each plus $1 shipping and handling from Sea Grant Communications, 541-737-4849, or from our e-commerce store on the Web. It is also available in several bookstores and gift shops along the coast.

Boats of the Oregon Coast was illustrated by Stefania Padalino and written by Oregon State University Sea Grant Extension faculty Pat Corcoran, Ginny Goblirsch, Paul Heikkila, Kaety Hildenbrand, Steve Theberge, Michael Thompson and Jim Waldvogel.

Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River: 50th Anniversary Edition. This award-winning documentary uses rare archival footage and photos to examine a turning point in the history of the Pacific Northwest. For more than 10,000 years the region’s native peoples lived successfully off the land and waters. Salmon was a mainstay of the Indians’ diet, and for millennia Celilo Falls was the great Indian fishery on the mid-Columbia River, drawing people from throughout the West to trade for salmon. Then, in 1957, a giant hydroelectric dam at The Dalles drowned Celilo Falls and ended the fishery there for all time. Celilo Falls and the Remaking of the Columbia River provides a glimpse of life at Celilo as it once was and considers the cultural, social, and political forces that brought about its end. This 2007 edition marks the 50th anniversary of the inundation, with additional rare Celilo footage provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 2007. Color, DVD. 29 minutes. $19.95 plus $2 shipping and handling.

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