In Livingston tonight, state wildlife officials are updating the public on the fish killing disease that's prompted them to close 180 miles of the Yellowstone River, and hundreds of miles of tributaries.
Trout Unlimited's Patrick Byorth will be at the meeting. Sitting beside a tributary of the Yellowstone in the Paradise Valley today, he says people are going to have a lot of questions.
"This outbreak is mysterious."
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks staff have been surveying tributaries of the Yellowstone to see if the parasite that's killed thousands of mountain whitefish has spread beyond the river's main stem. Byorth, a trained wildlife biologist, says he thinks fish will develop resistance to the parasite's effects, which are made worse by low river flows and warm water.
"My prediction is, water temperatures are going to cool off, probably by mid-September, and the river will bounce back," Byorth says.
FWP has not yet offered a theory for how the parasite got into the Yellowstone, or when the unprecedented closure of such a long stretch of river will end.
