coal creek fish removal

As mitigation for light rail projects in Bellevue, Washington, Sound Transit sponsored a major in-stream habitat improvement project along Bellevue’s Coal Creek.  KLB contractors were awarded the construction contract and hired The Watershed Company during the summers of 2018 and 2019 to conduct fish exclusion and relocation along Coal Creek at the Sound Transit E 320 mitigation site.  The Watershed Company approach was to begin by setting up fish exclusion screens at each end of the project stream reach, from which fish were to be removed and which would be dewatered to accommodate construction.  Fish were captured by our crew of 3 biologists from the isolated section using seining, electrofishing, and dipnetting techniques. 

These fish were transported in aerated buckets, making frequent trips and released into unaffected sections of Coal Creek either downstream or upstream of the project area.  Fishing continued making several passes through the project reach until a clear diminishment of catch per unit effort was noted.  On the final pass, crew from KLB assisted our biologists by carrying small pumps from pool to pool and dewatering them so that virtually every fish could be found, captured, and relocated to safer waters.

On one of the several days that fish were relocated, August 12th, 2019, fish were removed on an urgent basis from a stream section that had been previously fished, but had then been overwhelmed and  inundated by flows due to a severe thunderstorm and torrential rain event. Fish exclusion screening had to be repaired before fish capture and relocation could resume.  On that day, 298 fish and 27 crayfish were relocated, including 71 cutthroat trout and 26 juvenile coho salmon. Non-salmonid fish included  sculpin and lamprey.