BRUNEAU, Idaho — Idaho Fish and Game have found 16 dead white sturgeon so far this summer as drought conditions have led to dangerous conditions prompting a closure for part of CJ Strike Reservoir.
"The oxygenated water is too hot and the cooler water has no oxygen so it really puts stress on these fish," said Art Butts with the Idaho Fish and Game. "It’s just tough times, we don’t believe that angling necessarily contributed to this mortality, but it’s the one thing we can control and we can remove a stressor."
WATCH|Check out the video to see the prehistoric white sturgeon
This marks the second mortality event in CJ Strike Reservoir as 15 percent of the population has been lost since the first mortality event back in 2022.
"We had 29 fish die in 2022 and we are looking at 16 right now," said Tim Parrish, who runs Hammett Valley Fishing Adventures. "Basically, we have bad water quality and not enough water flow and our water temperatures are really high right now."
On the surface the water temperature has climbed above 70 degrees and at the bottom where it is cooler and the sturgeon like to hang out, has low oxygen levels. We have gone fishing with Parrish to fish for this prehistoric monster that can live up to 100-years old and is the largest freshwater fish in North America.
"With all the different water wars up in eastern Idaho, we are not getting the water down the Snake River like we used to," said Parrish. "We have had a hot summer with low flows, not much rain as Mother Nature has not done us any favors."
Pretty much all the water in the Snake River gets diverted in the Magic Valley during drought years, so this portion of the Snake and CJ Strike Reservoir is really only getting water from the Malad River and the Thousand Springs area.
The sturgeon in this landlocked area between two dams are also facing other problems because of low flows. This year, the river has had around 6,000 cubic feet per second for most of the year, with one bump in May to around 10,000; that was the last time Parrish fished in the area that is now closed.
"We have the largest concentration of white sturgeon that are still reproducing in Idaho, but we haven't had a reproduction for ten years," said Parish. "That happened in 2017 when we had the high water flow, we had a great reproductive year that year and we haven’t seen one since."
In 2017, the river got as high as 30,000 cfs, but it hasn't gotten that high ever since. The closure on CJ Strike Reservoir is from Canyon Creek to Rattlesnake Creek until September 25.
"When we have good snowpacks and good flows, the sturgeon are able to reproduce and we have better water quality," said Butts. "We work with the biologists at Idaho Power and we will continue to monitor the situation on a weekly basis."
Idaho Fish and Game tells us if you find a dead sturgeon to contact them as they attempt to find the cause of the death to learn more about the situation. They have put up signs all over CJ Strike Reservoir.
