Advancing Collaborative Fisheries Science in the Klamath Basin

Focus of Work: The Klamath Basin Fisheries Collaborative (KBFC) is an ambitious regional initiative focused on monitoring and evaluating Klamath River restoration opportunities amid an ecological system in crisis and the need for Endangered Species Act protections for several fish species. Key collaborators include Tribes, federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. KBFC has developed and is expanding a database that provides access to standardized fisheries data. This data is critical for assessing the impacts of water and fisheries management, ecosystem restoration, and dam removal on fish species in the Klamath Basin.

Our Approach: KFBC aims to better integrate fisheries research in the Klamath Basin—led by various groups, with some studies dating back to the mid-1990s. Initially, Seatone conducted interviews with each party to assess the issues, challenges, and opportunities facing KBFC. Insights from this assessment informed a series of meetings that enabled the group refine its objectives and approach to building a comprehensive fisheries science database, particularly with data from passive integrated transponders placed in fish. Through this collaborative process the group clarified its purpose, developed operating procedures, and identified key strategic actions ahead for expanding the database.

Key Outcomes: KBFC collaborators successfully negotiated a path forward that, to this day, guides the group’s work together. At its annual meeting in 2023, the full group of collaborators from across the Klamath Basin adopted by consensus the Operating Guidelines for the Klamath Basin Fisheries Collaborative. Tribes, non-profit conservation organizations and both federal and state agencies continue to monitor and share information together about coho and Chinook Salmon, Lost River suckers (C’waam), Shortnose suckers (Koptu), steelhead and other native fish species. Over time, the KBFC anticipates the inclusion of additional researchers in this collaborative research endeavor.