Lance Beckman of White Salmon is a former fisheries research biologist, retired after 32 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He's studied the reservoirs of the Missouri and the Columbia rivers.
For nine years, he was project leader determining the spawning and rearing needs of sturgeon in Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day and McNary pools, the first to study the early life history of the fish in that area.
Beckman's a member of the bi-state Columbia River Recreational Advisory Group. When he comments, Washington and Oregon fishery managers pause and listen closely.
That's why the observations Beckman has made in the past 13 months of sea lion predation on sturgeon in the three miles between the Bonneville Dam second powerhouse and the Oak Tree Hole carry a lot of weight.
Beckman has spent almost 14 hours making observations between late November 2009 and mid-December 2010.
He's counted sea lions kill 10 sublegal sturgeon, 22 legals, 47 oversize and 17 he could not classify. That's 96 fish.
"Important is the fact that 96 sturgeon were observed killed during the 13.7 hours I was there,'' he said. "It is very significant that seven sturgeon were killed per hour of observation. "If you expand the number killed per hour observed to total daylight hours and a given number of days, you can estimate that many thousands of sturgeon are killed even with these limited observations.''
But here's the kicker: From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers viewing site, only 14 or 15 of those kills would have been observable. Data collected by Corps observers the past few years has been used to show how sea lion predation is increasing.
Beckman's observations show the Corps numbers may be only the tip of the iceberg.
"Although these observation trips may be minimal, I tried to be as accurate as possible with very limited resources,'' Beckman said. "I hope these observations, as crude as they made be, stimulate some interest in the plight of white sturgeon.''
As if Beckman's observations weren't bleak enough, get this:
"The sea lions seldom feed on their prey, but often seem to kill out of boredom and leave the sturgeon once movement ceases,'' he said.
Beckman also is a leading voice for sturgeon hatcheries on the Columbia River.
Reducing and reducing harvest incrementally will not stem the decline in sturgeon, he said.
"Sturgeon are my passion and I'm totally frustrated,'' Beckman said. "The only answer we've got in the long term is hatchery supplementation.''
Sturgeon populations in the mid-Columbia pools are in worse shape than the lower Columbia, he added.
Suckers, sculpins and crayfish all prey on sturgeon eggs and larvae, Beckman said.
Sturgeon would not need to be raised to a large size in a hatchery, he added. About two months might be enough.
"You only need to raise them to the size when they are a little pin-cushion, about two inches,'' he said.
A hatchery on the Marion Drain near Prosser is beginning to produce young sturgeon to supplement populations in the reservoirs behind the Columbia River dams in central Washington.
Bill Tweit, Columbia River policy lead for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the Marion Drain facility is a cooperative effort between the state and Yakama Indian Nation. Research in those pools has found little, if any, natural sturgeon production, Tweit said. Supplementation from a hatchery is viewed as the only option to keep sturgeon in the pools.
Money from public utility districts to mitigate for fish losses caused by dams is financing the mid-Columbia effort.
Tweit said there also is an experimental hatchery in British Columbia as part of the effort to maintain sturgeon in Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam.
A century of experience with salmon hatcheries has shown there are unforeseen consequences in culturing fish, he said. The population in the lower Columbia has not dropped even close to a level where a hatchery is being seriously discussed, he added.
-- ALLEN THOMAS, The Vancouver Columbian