From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

Bureau of Reclamation and DFG staff met today with Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff’s Marina in Freeport, Bob Simms, KFBK Radio Outdoor Program host and Jerry Nash, local angler, at the Bureau of Reclamation offices on Cottage Way. A total of 15 people showed up for the meeting.

Jeff McCracken, Bureau spokesman, said he had already consulted with the Solicitor’s office and the Department of Justice to get the go-ahead for the rescue. McDaris explained that he already had a pipe ready to transport fish through from the island to Miner Slough, so he could begin the rescue this afternoon. The volunteers will transport the fish in ice chests or small kid’s swimming pool placed on ATVs and send them through the pipes into the slough. McDaris and volunteers are also ready to install another pipe to put oxygen in the water at the island.

When I went to the Slough with McDaris on Wednesday, the vast majority of fish that were still alive were striped bass. Jeff Nash also reported big schools of threadfin shad and silversides in a sump on the island.

Terry Foreman, Fisheries Program Manager of the DFG’s Fisheries Branch, urged caution in doing the fish rescue to make sure that the fish were transferred into the slough alive. “If the fish die after being released, it won’t look good,” he said. In response to a direct question by McDaris, “Can we do the rescue today?,” Foreman said that he couldn’t give approval since the levee repair was a Bureau project, not a state project. “We’re giving you information,” said Foreman. “We are not giving you permission to do the fish rescue. We are just consulting with you before you do it.”

He made it clear that the DFG wouldn’t have staff assisting with the rescue, but that game wardens would be on site during the rescue.

To read the rest of this story from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org, click here.

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