Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby Launches Live-Stream Video of Umpqua Fish

PRESS RELEASE: Live and in color, the "Underwater World of Umpqua Fish" is coming to your home, business, school, and mobile devices. The Umpqua Fishery Enhancement Derby ("UFED") is now providing a live-stream video of different sizes and colors of fish migrating upstream pass a window below the surface of water that is home to thousands of fish each year. Thanks to the many donors that provided funding support for the 2022 Derby auction "Frenzy" project, a remote waterproof camera system is now linked to a new website that captures a unique opportunity to encourage the public to spend a little time gaining better knowledge of our valuable fisheries resources. And what better way to do this from the comfort of your living room, favorite restaurant, or classroom. UFED has had this idea on its bucket list of potential projects for several years and continued to hear from many sponsors that this was a high priority for outreach and educational activities not only in Douglas County, but also statewide and beyond its borders. With the help of our local internet technology partners Douglas Fast Net, All Wired Up, and Ryan Finlay and Moses Finlay from Tracker, the first phase of the project is complete. We are excited to offer this viewing to everyone, and especially to folks that cannot walk up and down the 99 stair steps or visit the public viewing area near the Winchester I-5 exit. Future plans are to develop a software program that will record individual fish and update the counts on a regular basis that is not available now to the public. At the same time, UFED is planning to reach out to educational institutions and local community organizations that are interested in helping all of us young and old gain a better understanding of our fish populations and the watersheds that we share together. The start-up costs of this 2022 Project were paid by gracious donations from the Douglas County Commissioners and over 30 individual contributors. These dedicated funds and your donations will help provide matching UFED grants to complete more outreach activities with new partnerships over the next several years. UFED is a local non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing financial support for fish enhancement projects and educational activities in the Umpqua River basin. Over the past 31 years, donors and sponsors of this 4-day event held in February have contributed nearly 2 million dollars to hundreds of projects. By watching this video on our website (www.umpquafish.com), you will join our hundreds of UFED members and sponsors in continuing to help improve the homewaters of Umpqua Fish.