KELSO — There’s a second species of smelt in the lower Cowlitz River.
Field crews for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Cowlitz tribe are finding two varieties of smelt in the stream — longfin smelt in addition to the well-known eulachon smelt.
More research is under way in the Cowlitz, the mother-lode tributary for smelt spawning in the Columbia River system, than in past decades. Eulachon are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Biologists doing larvae and fish sampling are finding longfin smelt along with eulachon.
Longfin smelt have a long anal fin, a lack of striations in the gill area and are smaller than Columbia River eulachon.
There is a landlocked population of longfin smelt in Lake Washington.
The range of longfin smelt is from northern California to northern British Columbia. Longfin smelt in Lake Washington and Harrison Lake in British Columbia have a short life span, with few surviving to age 3.
Longfin smelt spawn in coastal streams from October to December, according to Inland Fishes of Washington, published by the University of Washington Press.
Eulachon fishing is closed statewide.
