‘Human Error’ To Blame For Beaver Creek Fall Chinook Smolt Loss; Report: Waters Known To Be Toxic

UPDATE, 8:46 a.m., Sunday, March 2, 2025: On Friday, February 28, 2025, reporter Lexi Ryan of KPIC reported that Coquille Willdife Association studies done with ODFW “show that historically [dissolved] oxygen levels in the slough are toxic between July and October.” She also interviewed local Salmon Trout Enhancement Program member Dana Mills who said STEP “was not called when ODFW released the smolts and they don’t understand why they choose Beaver Slough knowing it was inhabitable to fish … Three or four other locations were viable.”

A failure to first determine whether an Oregon Coast slough was actually a good place to release 37,000 fall Chinook smolts last September contributed to the deaths of the young salmon soon after.

That’s the nut of what ODFW is saying about its recently completed investigation into the fish loss on Beaver Slough, a tributary of the Coquille River east of Bandon, and in its wake, the agency said it is reviewing and strengthening protocols around all of its salmon, steelhead and trout releases.

“The agency takes full responsibility for this loss,” stated ODFW Director Debbie Colbert. “Losing these fish impacts our future fisheries and the relationships we have in this community. It is a priority for me and my staff to prevent this type of loss in the future and to repair the trust in our agency.”

ODFW acknowledged in an October 4 joint statement with the Coquille Indian Tribe that its biologists thought the slough would be a good spot for the salmon and that it had assured tribal comanagers they would test and confirm that the fish could migrate out of it, but that conditions weren’t in fact conducive for fish survival, took full responsibility for the loss, and said it was investigating further.

“The investigation revealed that human error contributed to the loss,” the agency said this week, “specifically a failure to gather sufficient and reliable data before determining the site’s suitability for fish survival.”

As any number of stories over recent years will attest, all kinds of things lead to the loss of hatchery fish – floods, mechanical failures, disease, accidents, intentional poisoning, “infrastructure issues” – but that this one was preventable is galling.

Asked if anyone has been or would be fired, a spokesperson said ODFW had no comment on specific corrective actions, but that in general, staffing changes including a new district watershed manager and other anticipated changes at the district office provide a chance to look at the roles and responsibilities of employees to prevent such losses in the future.   

ODFW said its investigation included interviews with those involved as well as witnesses and collected some 500 pages worth of documentation. A copy of the report was not immediately made available.

But as a result of the fish loss, ODFW said it has launched a “comprehensive effort to strengthen its protocols and ensure more effective management of future fish releases,” work that is expected to be mostly in place by this June.

That effort is also meant to “reaffirm” Colbert’s high expectations of her staff’s care and feeding, per se, of the 35 million salmon and steelhead and 5 million trout that ODFW annually rears and releases. Clipped Chinook, coho and summer and winter steelhead power better than 70 percent of the state’s yearly harvest.

“Our hatchery salmon, steelhead and trout are not a mere commodity – they are precious native fish resources critical for both fisheries and conservation,” Colbert underlined.

In owning the mistake and working to identify and put in place better policies and protocols around releases, Colbert and ODFW are attempting to fix relationships with not only anglers and the public as it requests a license fee increase and $20 million for hatchery investments from the state legislature, but partners at the Coquille Tribe, with which it signed a voluntary partnership agreement in 2022 on fish and wildlife issues.

As fall Chinook returns in the Coquille have declined markedly in recent years, the state and tribe have worked to reduce smallmouth bass predation on young salmon as well as implemented an emergency hatchery program to prop up the run.

For her part, Coquille Indian Tribe Chair Brenda Meade said it was a time to “heal” relationships that were strained by the loss of the Chinook last September.

“Now is the time to look forward to the work we have started (with) our ODFW partners and the community to implement change. Change away from scarcity of salmon and steelhead in our rivers and bays to a not-too-distant future of restored abundance, world-class fishery opportunity, and healthy rivers nourished by the fish. As Director Colbert and I said in the days following the loss, it is time to look at new approaches, be bold, and to lead,” Meade said.

Their October 2024 joint statement mentions taking into account “new research results showing that hatchery salmonids retain adaptive capacity in the same way naturally produced fish do” and “studying the utility of streamside incubators or ‘hatchboxes’ to support our goals in this area.”

The reason the fish were released in Beaver Slough at the Coquille Valley Wildlife Area parking area not far off Highway 42 in the first place was that the traditional Chinook acclimation and release site in the system wasn’t available last fall and the Coquille Tribe and ODFW had differing ideas on where to put them. The tribe pointed to the upper North Fork Coquille River, but ODFW, which saw that site as representing a “significant change from past practices,” wanted to use Beaver Slough. The tribe agreed to try it for one year based on ODFW’s promise to test and confirm the site was suitable.

The fish were released there September 11 and it wasn’t long before dead young salmon were spotted by the public. On September 17, ODFW acknowledged the loss and said it was investigating.

According to ODFW, tide gates on the system “were not determined to be a contributing factor” in the fish loss. While the carcasses of the dead young Chinook were too far gone to determine a specific cause of death, the agency continues to point to possible low dissolved oxygen levels in the slough due to plentiful plant life that depletes the amount of oxygen available to the fish.

Beyond the lost 37,000 smolts, the agency last fall also released 48,000 young fall Chinook into the Coquille at the city of Coquille ramp and placed another 74,500 into an acclimation pen on Ferry Creek near Bandon.

ODFW said it does plan on releasing more fish in its Coos-Coquille district this year using its “new protocols as part of the selection and release process.”