Eulachon Talk

Eulachon fish. | Photo from Midcoast Watersheds Council

Learn about eulachon and the efforts to study and recover their populations when the MidCoast Watersheds Council hosts a presentation by Mac Barr on May 3, at 6:30 p.m. in room 205 at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 N.W. Beach Dr. in the Nye Beach area). The presentation is free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be served.

Eulachon, commonly called smelt or candlefish, are a small, anadromous fish, that like salmon spend three to five years in saltwater before returning to freshwater to spawn. The name candlefish reflects the fact that they are so fat-rich during spawning they could be caught, dried and strung on a wick and burned like a candle. That also makes them excellent prey for humpbacks, seals, and sea lions, and their eggs and larvae important food for salmon and sturgeon. 

Once widespread in coastal streams and nearshore waters, including in places like Yachat’s Smelt Sands Beach, their populations have dwindled in the last few decades.  This decline is of great concern due to their important ecosystem role.  Some wonder if this species may be locally extinct in some of our coastal streams.

Barr’s presentation will explore the life history as well as the ecological and cultural value of the eulachon – Thaleichthys pacificus.  He will discuss indications of the fish's declining abundance, its listing under the Endangered Species Act, and the recently released Conservation and Recovery Plan for the species.  Work that was piloted locally to add LED lights to shrimp trawls to successfully avoid eulachon bycatch will also be mentioned.  Barr will also discuss the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s current three-year study attempting to calculate spawning stock biomass in three coastal streams – Cummings, Ten Mile, and Big Creeks.  Unfortunately, to date, the agency has not recovered eggs or larvae in these streams, leading them to believe the local populations may be in trouble.

Following work as a marine educator with the Peace Corps in Samoa, Mac Barr received a Master’s in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University in 2009.  He then worked as a contract research scientist at the Alaskan Fisheries Science Center with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle where he participated in diet analyses and ground fish surveys of the Bering Sea.  In the fall of 2010, he began his career with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife conducting spawning ground surveys for Chinook and Coho salmon.  Eventually, he transitioned to work with the Columbia River Investigation group and participated in stock assessments of White Sturgeon and tagging activities for the Northern Pikeminnow Management Program.  Currently, Barr is the project leader and manager for ODFW’s components of the Northern Pikeminnow Management Program and the project leader for a NOAA Section 6 grant: Studies of Eulachon in Oregon and Washington.