Cowlitz River Study Seeks to Establish Catch and Release Mortality Rates

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If you see a member of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife spending a day floating down the Cowlitz River rod and reel in hand and a classic “gone fishing” smile on their face, don’t assume they’re playing hooky on the job. 

A study underway on the Cowlitz River is attempting to quantify the mortality rate for salmon and steelhead that are caught and released by sport anglers, and the WDFW says reel time on the water is imperative to the success of the project. In order to establish a science-based mortality rate for salmonid species on regional rivers, the WDFW has contracted with the Mt. Hood Environmental group in order to catch, tag and release Chinook, coho and steelhead in regional watersheds, including the Cowlitz River. Those tags, attached near the dorsal fin, are used to calculate the survival rate of released fish as they make their way upriver. 

On the Cowlitz River, any tagged fish that makes it back to the salmon hatchery separator is recorded in the study as a survivor, and anglers who catch a tagged fish are highly encouraged to report their catch so that the fish is not assumed to have died after its release.

“That’s one of the things that we really want the anglers to know, especially on 

the Cowlitz, is to report their tags when they catch these fish. Otherwise it’s going to hurt your numbers,” said Josh Richards, a field technician with Mt. Hood Environmental, who was out fishing on the Cowlitz River with the study group on Wednesday. He explained that a lower accepted mortality rate could lead to expanded sport fishing opportunities. 

“We want anglers on our rivers to be excited that they caught a fish, not upset,” said Richards.

It’s easy to understand how anglers, who have seen both fish stocks and angling opportunities dwindle over the past two decades, have come to be suspicious of the project. In recent years, massive miscalculations of salmonid smolt releases have hampered the WDFW-operated trout hatchery on the Cowlitz River and the department has acted to eliminate entire salmon runs in the Cowlitz system in spite of considerable public opposition.

That point was not lost on Thomas Buehrens, the WDFW’s lead research scientist for the Lower Columbia River. 

“Our department has taken quite a public relations beating lately,” said Buehrens. “A lot of that is self-inflicted.”

Indeed, many Cowlitz River anglers who have observed the study crew floating by with rods in hand have conjured up their own unflattering opinions and associated conspiracy theories. One regular Cowlitz River angler I spoke with this week said that most sport anglers feel the study is a “waste of money.” That angler, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that as far as mortality rates go, “it all depends on how the person takes care of the fish when the get it in the net or if they took the hooks too deep and are bleeding out the gills.”

He added that he has personally adopted the practice of not netting wild fish whenever he is able to identify an intact adipose fin while it’s on the line. 

In order to gather data for the study, WDFW contracted with Mt. Hood Environmental, and that research group has in turn hired Andy Coleman of Andy’s Angling Adventures to help them get out on the water. Coleman is a sixth generation Cowlitz River angler from Mossyrock and he says he wouldn’t be a part of the study if he didn’t think it was in the benefit of sport anglers like himself, his forefathers, and his fish-crazed clients.

“Anytime you’ve got tax dollars being spent, people are going to have an opinion about it one way or the other. We just want to make sure that people know what we are out here trying to do,” said Coleman, who invited The Chronicle to hit the river with the group during their study expedition on Wednesday in the name of transparency. “No information leads to bad information. We just want to put an end to the rumors and the bad mojo.”

Ian Courter, a fish biologist and owner of Mt. Hood Environmental, explained that having Coleman involved with the study has been incredibly helpful in regard to landing fish, and navigating the unwritten rules of the river.

“We go out with Andy twice a month. It works out really well because he’s a local guy and he can keep us turned onto the fish,” said Courter. “Plus, everybody knows Andy out here and he adds credibility to what we’re doing.”

Courter added that he and his staff also try to wet a line on the Cowlitz on their own at least four times per week. He said they often hitch rides with locals who volunteer to tote them around on their river sleds. Mt. Hood Environmental also receives sporadic help from bank anglers who volunteer to tag and release their catch for the sake of the study.

According to Buehrens and Courter the total cost of the mortality rate study is just over $154,000 per year, which they argue is relatively low compared to similar efforts. Courter said that about two-thirds of that money goes toward time on the river and the rest of the funds go toward data review and number crunching.

“The public sees us out on the water and they think that’s all we do, but there’s a lot of behind the scenes work that they do not see,” insisted Courter.

Buehrens said that funding for the study comes from the Lower Columbia River salmon and steelhead endorsement fee that sport anglers must pay when purchasing their fishing license. That endorsement is required for all salmonid angling on the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam, as well as its tributaries, including the Cowlitz River. Buehrens noted that funding became available in early 2017 and data collection began in June. He said that the study is currently funded through June of 2019, although he is hopeful that additional funding will become available in order to extend their work into 2020.

Buehrens pointed out that the mortality rates currently used by the WDFW are not based on meaningful data, but rather “scientific opinion.”



“Some of these statistics on mortality rates are based on only 20 or 40 fish,” said Buehrens. He believes that those small sample sizes may be leading to inaccurate calculations that could be detrimental to sport angling opportunity and wild fish at the same time.

Buehrens noted that 10 percent is a common mortality rate used by the WDFW for rivers in the region.

“I think it’s probably overestimated in some instances, maybe even many instances,” said Buehrens. “There may be some that are underestimated as well, but if we can figure out which ones those are, and tell the difference, then you can figure out where you need to be more conservative and where you can liberalize.”

In order to conduct the study researchers work to catch as many fish as possible during any given salmon or steelhead run. Their efforts have targeted both the fall and spring Chinook salmon runs, the winter and summer steelhead runs, and silver coho salmon. Once a fish is hooked, the researchers bring it up to the boat and net it but do not remove it from the water since it is illegal to pull a fish from the water that is not intended for harvest. While the fish is in the net the researchers collect as much data as possible, including length from nose to tail, time played on the line, time in the net, percentage of scales remaining, type of bait used and angling technique utilized for the catch. The fish are also tagged for identification twice, just in case one falls out.

“One of the reasons that these types of numbers are so hard to come by is because these types of studies are very difficult to implement, just because of their size and complexity,” explained Courter.

On Wednesday morning aboard Coleman’s guide boat near Blue Creek on the Cowlitz River Richards had the hot rod and he was able to reel in a feisty steelhead just before 8 a.m. It was a bright silver steelhead in the places where it still had scales, but Richards and Coulter estimated it had lost 15 to 20 percent of its scales. That descaling was a result of time out of salt water as well as a large unhealed scar left from an attack by a marine mammal such as a seal or sea lion.

Coleman estimated that the buck steelhead weighed around 7 or 8 pounds. Richards played the fish for two minutes and 18 second before Coleman was able to net it and it spent an identical amount of time in the net, partially submerged, as the researchers collected their data.

The researchers pointed out that every fish caught as part of the study is returned to the river. They said that angry anglers’ attitudes typically improve once they learn that the WDFW isn’t out catching their salmon dinner on taxpayer dollars.

The WDFW salmonid mortality study has also included work on the Yakima and Wind rivers, and talks are underway to include Drano Lake. Buehrens noted that while the bulk of the work has been conducted on the Cowlitz River, the results of the study will be used for calculations on rivers around the region.

“The Cowlitz is a perfect place for this study. We have abundant hatchery fish. We have all five major stocks, we have few wild fish and we have the barrier dam so we are able to account for, and control, the actual return,” explained Buehrens. “This Cowlitz is relatively unique in how well set up it is.”

Adding credibility to his assertion that the mortality rate study could actually benefit sport anglers, Buehrens said he believes a barbless hook regulation implemented on the Cowlitz River several years ago may actually be       

counterproductive. He said that if more fish are slipping off hooks before reaching the boat then there’s a chance that even more wild fish could wind up on the line. Similarly, he said the difference in survival rates between fish hooked with a bait setup as opposed to a fly rod are likely negligible.

“Our thesis is that it’s more important where you hook a fish rather than if there happens to be a piece of plastic or a piece of bait on the end of your hook,” said Buehrens.

Courter added that while his company is holding off on releasing any results from the study until it has been completed there are up-to-date catch statistics available on his company’s website. He was adamant that better data has the ability to improve both wild fish conservation as well as sport-angling opportunities.

“This field study is really trying to accomplish both of those objectives — preserve wild stocks while also preserving fishing opportunity,” said Courter. “Some folks feel that we might be out here to constrain things even more, when actually it’s the exact opposite,” insisted Courter. 

He added that while Cowlitz River anglers may have well-informed opinions about the condition of their beloved river and its fish, “the burden of proof is on the user group to prove it.”

Up to date statistics on the number of fish caught in the study so far can be found online at http://mthoodenvironmental.com/.