Efforts aimed at restoring lamprey

PORTLAND – Northwest officials are increasing efforts to restore runs of Columbia River lamprey, an ancient eel-like fish.

Lamprey-friendly ramps have been installed at the Bonneville Dam to help the snakelike swimmers, but few adult lampreys are using them, the Oregonian reported.

The number of lampreys has been in sharp decline since the late 1960s, and biologists aren’t sure why their numbers haven’t improved. In the 1960s, more than 400,000 lamprey swam up the Columbia River each summer. Only about 14,000 passed through in 2008.

“We’re all kind of scratching our heads, we know salmon are doing so well,” said Bob Heineth, a fish biologist with the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, who has seen endangered salmon numbers come back in the last few years. “Why aren’t the lamprey doing as well?”

Steps taken to help salmon recover haven’t been kind to lamprey; lamprey have a tough time climbing fish ladders that are typically designed for salmon.

Lamprey are also odd fish. They’re ugly, slow, and don’t get as nearly as much attention as salmon or steelhead. But the fatty fish provides a good food source to numerous fish and marine mammals such as sea lions and seals. Northwest tribes also value lamprey for food, as well as medicinal and ceremonial uses.

“You can always see lamprey, when they’re available, as a food at the longhouse,” said Aaron Jackson, who manages lamprey for the Umatilla tribe in Oregon. “Some tribal members, they just love ’em.”

In 2008, the Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reached a 10-year agreement with the Yakama and Colville tribes in Washington and the Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes in Oregon for operation of the Columbia and Snake River dams.

As part of that agreement, the corps and BPA will also spend about $70 million to improve lamprey passage over that time.

Ramps have been placed at Willamette Falls in Oregon City and at Three Mile Falls Dam on the Umatilla River to help lamprey. The corps also completely redesigned a fish ladder at John Day Dam to make it suitable for both salmon and lamprey. And the Umatilla River has been repopulated by transporting adult lamprey to their spawning grounds.