Morgantown Dominion Post
29 November 2008
Associated Press
Charleston — Six months of drought have West Virginia’s rivers and streams running at their lowest levels in recent history. The dry spell could affect fishing, both sooner and later.
Bret Preston, fisheries chief for the state Division of Natural Resources, said he and his colleagues are starting to get worried. ‘‘When you have environmental conditions that are less than perfect for fish, you’re going to be concerned,’’ he said. ‘‘Yeah, we’re worried.’’
In some streams, the water has essentially ceased to flow. Fish accustomed to swimming from one pool to another are finding themselves stranded in deep pockets, unable to escape from predatory fish, birds and animals. Some fish species have been forced to spawn in areas where eggs or fry have almost no chance to survive.
Preston and other DNR biologists fear that entire year-classes of some species — all the fish that a successful spawn would have added to the general population — might be lost.
‘‘Fish that spawn in the fall, such as brook and brown trout, probably aren’t going to reproduce well this year,’’ he said. ‘‘In the grand scheme of things, year-class losses happen from time to time. Sometimes drought is to blame. Other times, it’s unusually high water or some other environmental condition.
‘‘The real problem comes when you lose two or three year-classes in a row. If this drought extends to two years it could cause overall fish populations to decrease and we could have serious concerns.’’
Most fish species spawn in spring or early summer, when water levels tend to run higher. If winter breaks the current drought, and if West Virginia gets its usual amount of snow and rain, fisheries biologists will breathe easier. If not, well ...
‘‘Long-term, a drought could even affect the food base in a stream or river,’’ Preston explained. ‘‘Insects and baitfish populations could suffer, and that could affect the condition and survival of game fish populations.’’
Low water also could worsen any effects pollution might cause. Mud and sediment from a construction project might not harm fish in a creek running at full flow, but it might choke the life from fish in a drought-shrunken stream.
‘‘Taking large amounts of water from a stream that’s already running low could cause damage, too,’’ Preston said.
In western states, farmers routinely divert water from streams to irrigate crops. In West Virginia, where average rainfall rates are much higher, that doesn’t often happen. But a protracted drought might force farmers to take actions they wouldn’t otherwise.
Natural gas drillers routinely pump water from streams to fracture deep-lying rock strata and free trapped methane deposits. Biologists worry that the large amounts of water needed to reach particularly deep strata, such as the gas-rich Marcellus Shale, could seriously deplete drought-stricken waters.
West Virginia’s trout hatcheries also depend on steady supplies of water, and the ongoing drought has already caused changes that could result in fewer and smaller trout being stocked next spring.
‘‘Typically, we feed our hatchery trout three times a day,’’ said Mike Shingleton, the biologist in charge of the DNR’s trout program. ‘‘We’ve had to cut the feedings down to twice a day because flows are so low that we can’t get the [fish] waste out of the hatcheries fast enough.’’
The low waters have also prevented hatchery crews from transferring trout from one hatchery to another.
‘‘That’s cutting down on our production, too,’’ Shingleton added. ‘‘We had a similar thing happen in 1998 and 1999. As a result, the fish we stocked were considerably smaller. I hope we’re not in that same situation now, but we can’t make water.’’