Why did this happen. Simple. Water. The fish have been continually put on the bottom of the list to receive the water they so desperately need to survive. They can't lobby, they can't be subsidized with money, without water they die, pure and simple. They are helpless before us, and once gone they will not return. Extinction is final.

It is my husband's job as a fishing guide to know this river and its fish. Every day he needs to assess the state of the river, the fish reaction, and bring his client's to the spots where the fish are most likely to be congregated depending on conditions. He is continually monitoring temperatures, flows, and tides. No matter what other garbage you may have read to try to cloud this incident, he can tell you pure and simple why this happened. About seven days ago, someone who will never be identified now, opened a valve at the dam and sent water into the river. The river temperature went from 72 degrees to 62 degrees and the fish staging in the estuary and ocean raced into the river in hundreds of thousands in response to the change. Normally, these fish appear in pods and move steadily and slowly like divers decompressing, up the warm river. They stage themselves to accept the hot water conditions and this gradual staging allows them to survive and spawn upriver. The immediate drop in the water temperature sent them into overdrive. Three days later, as mysteriously as the water began, it was cut off. The water temp raced back up to 72 degrees again and the fish were instantly doomed. Human error brought them into the river and human error trapped them and their future generation there to die horribly and without respite. That's what happened in it's simplest form. The cause of death was this, the manner of death is disease and lack of oxygen. We saw fish gasping for breath in this carcass infested water. Salmon have two forms of potentially fatal bacteria which are carried in their systems. Weak fish succumb to disease as a part of natural selection. But once stressed by low water and high temperatures, fish that would normally never manifest these diseases succumb to them in their weakened condition. The disease is the result not the cause. We will probably never be able to pin down who, or why this water was released in the first place, but once it was done there was no turning back. The water should never have been turned off. These fish were tricked into the system and once here were totally vulnerable.

What can we do now? To cure them or replace them, nothing. But we do need to take immediate action to clean up the river situation we are faced with at present. WE NEED WATER AND WE NEED IT NOW. Not a little, but enough to flush the disease and dead out to sea as fast as possible. It must be immediate!! We cannot do anything for the fish who presently are diseased and dying. They will succumb no matter what action is taken, but we can get the water conditions back to a state that can receive the rest of the run that awaits its turn up the river this year. We still have fish we can salvage who are not in the system as of yet and who are carrying the eggs that we must guard most fiercely as they are so very precious.

This disaster has affected salmon, steelhead, and suckers and most importantly the endangered Coho. We met the fisheries biologists for the Yurok tribe just as they were examining a dead Coho. Scott Turo showed us the spot of disease on the gills of the fish that resulted from this disaster. It exhibited both the gill spots and the telltale yellowing discharge of the other bacterial infection. He agreed that stressing leads to infections and death. They also concur that low and hot water is the main cause of death. They are still not sure how many of endangered Coho and the endangered suckers are piled amongst the other dead. He explained that they take an area and do exhausting fish counts, identifying hatchery marks, species, and any other distinguishing characteristics to try to get a small version of the demographics of the big picture. Their most conservative estimate is 40,000 total and this does not reflect accurately on fish under the water and that have all ready naturally flushed out the mouth.

It has also affected all of us who depend on these fish. A member of the Yurok tribe spoke with me and voiced the opinion we all have, that cooperation between the tribe, the fishermen, the guides, the resort industries, and the environmental groups is paramount to getting our message out to the powers that be. We need to fight for these fish. They are our life and our passion. Scott at the Riffles Campground has explained eloquently how our very existences are interwoven with each other and the fish. Where once he had motor homes lined along the river, now five or six remain. The motel is basically deserted. The tourists have fled. We are left with a River of Death. A lawsuit has been filed and I hope that this disaster might have meaning for future generations of Klamath salmon and steelhead. They can't have died in vain. We need our water for our fish and we need it now and in the future. Crops can be subsidized, wells can be dug, dams can be removed and only money is lost. Without the river, the fish are lost forever. They were here first, and we have no right to take their lives.

Columnist Joan Carter co-owns, with her husband, Dan Carter's Guide Service.