Water for fish is not the problem, says rebuttal to commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 2, 2008 at 6:38 amFrom the Modesto Bee, this rebuttal to Radanovich & Costa’s recent commentary::
Regarding “Environmental laws wedge state into hydrological corner” by George Radanovich and Jim Costa (Sept. 23): The collapse of native fish species in the Delta is an indication that we are overtaxing the Delta with water exports. The waiver proposed by Radanovich and Costa could doom not only the Delta smelt, but also many Californian chinook salmon and steelhead populations.
Consider this: Average annual water exports from the Delta have been consistently higher in the last 5 years than in the previous 40. Where did that water go? Agriculture gets 80 percent of Delta water exports, environment programs get 2 percent. Obviously, trying to meet fish water needs has not caused this problem.
Read more from the Modesto Bee by clicking here.
Lawsuit planned over steelhead; Santa Clara River fish ladder targeted
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 2, 2008 at 6:09 amFrom the Ventura County Star:
In the latest salvo in the battle over steelhead trout, an environmental group this week took the first step toward filing a lawsuit against the United Water Conservation District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, claiming the water agency is not doing enough to protect the federally endangered fish in the Santa Clara River.
“We have to take decisive action now,” said Nica Knite, program manager for California Trout, which filed a notice Monday that it planned to sue over the issue. The suit is not just about protecting the steelhead, but the entire river, she said. The steelhead “is an indicator of the ecosystem health of the entire Santa Clara River watershed,” she said.
Knite’s group contends United Water hasn’t done what was specified in a July document by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates the management of the steelhead.
The biological opinion said the United fish ladder that goes around the Freeman Diversion doesn’t work and the agency must fix it or build a new one. It said actions are needed as early as this winter to help the fish get around the structure, which diverts water from the river to the Oxnard Plain.
United’s general manager dismissed Knite’s claims as well as parts of the biological opinion, saying the water district is doing all it needs to do to protect the fish. “We are not going to be intimidated,” Michael Solomon said. “We are going to protect the environment and do our responsibilities and protect our constituent’s water supply.”
Solomon said the reason why only two fish have used the ladder in the last 11 years is that there is not a significant population of steelhead in the river. Read more from the Ventura County Star by clicking here.
San Joaquin River maneuvering continues as Congress nears end
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 1, 2008 at 7:29 amFrom the McClatchy Newspapers:
Political maneuvering over the San Joaquin River’s future continues even as Congress grinds to a halt. In a last-minute bid, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has rewritten a river restoration bill so that it might avoid budgetary obstacles. Feinstein says stripping out money could ease passage of the environmentally ambitious bill.
“The only viable option is to make the bill (budget) neutral, then pursue legislation in the next Congress to fully restore the original funding provisions,” Feinstein advised the Friant Water Users Authority late Friday. Feinstein added that “this will give us momentum going forward,” as environmentalists and Friant-area farmers try to complete a lawsuit settlement. Water would be flowing and salmon swimming again below Friant Dam by 2013 under the settlement.
But Feinstein’s move caught even some of her Capitol Hill allies by surprise, and the odds still appear heavily stacked against success. “I don’t think that will fly,” said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno.
Read more from McClatchy Newspapers by clicking here.
Endangered species law could be altered; Conservationists decry proposed changes to act
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 29, 2008 at 9:15 amComing to you this morning from a McDonald’s in Goleta, with minutes just left on my Wayport Access, here’s an article from Stockton’s Record:
A crashing Delta ecosystem suggests that now is not a good time to tweak the Endangered Species Act, conservationists argue. But federal officials are proposing the first changes in two decades. In a plan up for public comment, the Bush administration wants to grant federal agencies the power to sometimes decide themselves whether a project, such as building a bridge, is likely to harm threatened or endangered species.
Normally those agencies consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Skipping that step would cut down on paperwork and speed up the process.
It would also speed up the demise of animals, birds, fish and plants, the environmentalists say.
“Many aspects of how and when and how much water is moved through the Delta, as well as pollutants that are discharged into the Delta … might very well no longer be covered” by the Endangered Species Act, warned Chris Shutes of the Stockton-based California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, in written comments submitted to the federal Department of Interior.
Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.
On California’s coast, farewell to the king salmon; For the first time there’s no fishing for chinook salmon on the California coast
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 29, 2008 at 8:50 amFrom the Smithsonian Magazine:
The salmon-boat cemetery in Fort Bragg, a fishing port tucked into shaggy pines about 150 miles north of San Francisco, is full of bleached and peeling hulls. Over the years many California vessels have landed in Bruce Abernathy’s front yard, pitched at steep angles among the weeds, some still rigged with trolling poles. The Anita II, the Dag. Eventually Abernathy’s son David takes them apart with a tractor and chain saw and sells what he can for parts. Sometimes all that’s left is a scrap with a painted-on name: My Pet.
Bruce Abernathy himself doesn’t watch the demolitions. He finds somewhere else to be, or he stays inside his house, with its many framed prints of trim little ships atop frisky seas. The fisherman turned resale man, and lately junk dealer, has “a lot of remorse” about what’s happening outside his window beyond the hot pink rhododendron bush. “I know almost everybody who owned these boats,” he said. “Boats become part of you, like a wife.”
Thirty years ago there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon, and curtailed it off Washington, a $300 million loss. When I visited Fort Bragg, in late May, the harbor felt about as cheerful as a junkyard. The docks should have quaked with activity, but the mooring basin was quiet except for the hoarse bark of sea lions. The fishermen with the biggest boats hoped to go way out after tuna later in the season; others had already joined roadwork crews or cobbled together odd jobs. Disaster relief money would be on the way, but to many second- and third-generation fishermen, a summer without salmon felt like the end of the line. For the better part of a century the fish supported Fort Bragg, home of the World’s Largest Salmon Barbeque, at which local politicians flip fillets on the grill and tourists come from far and wide to taste one of the most sought-after fish in the sea, the chinook salmon, a.k.a. the king.
Read more from the Smithsonian Magazine by clicking here.
Commentary: The ‘green governor’ slashes funding for endangered species; Schwarzenegger continues his war on fish and the environment
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 24, 2008 at 6:01 amFrom Dan Bacher, this commentary:
When he signed California’s long overdue state budget today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, true to his role as the “Fish Terminator,” blue penciled $3.1 million in funding from a key program run by the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to restore endangered and threatened salmon, steelhead and other species.
Although some deluded reporters and editors in the corporate media still portray Governor Schwarzenegger as the “Green Governor” for his grandstanding over global warming and “sustainability,” more and more Californians are waking up to the fact that the Schwarzenegger administration has been an unprecedented environmental disaster.
In the latest episode in his apparently relentless zeal to destroy California fisheries, Schwarzenegger has axed critical funding for DFG’s Biodiversity Program staff. This staff is responsible for administering and enforcing California’s Endangered Species Act (CESA) as well as reviewing and approving timber harvesting plans and applications for “incidental take” permits. The state’s efforts for recovery of threatened and endangered species, including CESA-listed species of declining salmon, are also budgeted under this program, according to a statement from California Trout.
California Trout, a prominent watershed and fish conservation group, strongly opposes Governor Schwarzenegger’s line item veto of $3.1 million in funding for these critical DFG activities.
“We are deeply disappointed that the governor would opt to severely limit DFG’s ability to protect our environment at this critical time,” said California Trout Chief Executive Officer Brian Stranko. “Particularly given the dramatic recent reductions in salmon populations and other threatened and endangered species, this action seems especially short-sighted. His action is particularly troublesome given the relatively minor savings achieved to our multi-billion dollar state budget.”
Bush withholds salmon disaster money as he pushes for corporate bailouts!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay:
While George W. Bush wants taxpayers to give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a $700 billion blank check to bail out Wall Street for its reckless speculation and greed, the administration announced last week that it would release only $100 million of the $170 million appropriated to salmon fishermen and businesses impacted by this year’s salmon fishing closure off the California and Oregon coasts and in Central Valley rivers.
Representatives Peter DeFazio (OR-04) and Mike Thompson (CA-01), along with 10 other members of Congress, wrote to President Bush on September 19 urging him to distribute the full $170 million in disaster aid to fishermen and businesses suffering from the closure of the salmon fishing season on the West Coast caused by the collapse of the Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon population.
“Playing games with the livelihood of fishers across the Pacific Northwest is yet another sign that the Bush Administration has no commitment to protect our valuable river systems, and no interest in helping the fishing communities and economies that rely on them,” the letter stated. “It is also completely unacceptable. We insist that you comply with congressional intent and immediately release the full $170 million in federal disaster aid for Pacific Northwest fishers.”
The other Representatives who signed the letter were Baird, Blumenauer, Capps, Eshoo, Farr, Hooley, Matsui, Woolsey, Wu and George Miller.
“The Bush Administration has once again put politics ahead of people,” said North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA). “Because of the Administration’s disastrous policies, Pacific coast fishing families have been devastated. Congress appropriated $170 million in federal disaster relief, but this latest proposal by the Bush Administration to withhold a large portion of these funds shows no regard for hardworking fishing families nor their livelihood.”
Read more from Dan Bacher at IndyBay by clicking here.
Smelt threaten irrigation projects; Lawsuit could junk scores of valley water contracts
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 19, 2008 at 6:05 amFrom the Capital Ag Press:
Contracts for 42 irrigation districts that rely on Central Valley Project water could be tossed because of the tiny delta smelt.
U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger heard arguments late last week over whether to require the Central Valley Project to rewrite the contracts because each was based off a flawed ruling that the water promised to both farmers and urban dwellers would not harm the endangered fish.
Delta smelt are considered to be the bellwether species in the estuary, which forms the hub of California’s water system - and smelt numbers have been crashing for several years. Water exports are one of several causes of the smelt’s decline and environmentalists have been suing various state and federal agencies to restrict water flows from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Should the contracts be invalidated, it would likely mean that farmers would get less water and on a different schedule than they receive now. How much less and on what sort of delivery schedule would be up to the individual districts as well as the federal government - and the smelt.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the midst of rewriting the biological opinion concerning the smelt. The degree of damage a new series of water contracts could do to the Central Valley farming community will hinge on how much water government scientists say the smelt need.
Read more from the Capital Ag Press by clicking here.
Klamath River tribes and fishermen: No business as usual at PacifiCorp!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 19, 2008 at 5:55 amFrom Dan Bacher:
A coalition of Klamath River Indian Tribes, fishermen, conservationists and local supporters ramped up their campaign to remove four fish-killing dams on the river today when they held a spirited protest in front of PacifiCorp’s headquarters in Portland.
The “Day of Action Against PacifiCorp” started off at 8:30 a.m. today when local activists hung a banner proclaiming “Warren Buffett Kills Salmon, Jobs and Communities” over Interstate-84 in solidarity with the Tribes. Around 200 people marched from Holiday Park in Portland at noon to converge in front of PacifiCorp for a press conference at 1 p.m.
After the conference, 70 people occupied the area in front of the headquarters, effectively shutting down the front entrance to PacifiCorp after company staff locked the doors. Police decked out in riot gear guarded the building, but no arrests were made. The dam removal advocates, including American Indian Movement (AIM) activists, commercial fishermen and other local supporters, pounded on the doors of the building, disrupting business at the power company.
“We are here to let PacifiCorp and Warren Buffett know that there will be no business as usual for PacifiCorp as long as there is no business as usual for Klamath River communities,” said Chook Chook Hillman of the Karuk Tribe and a member of the Klamath Justice Coalition, who carried two bottles of toxic algae from Klamath River reservoirs to the front door of PacifiCorp.
Government says salmon disaster money on its way; however, not the entire amount approved by Congress
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 18, 2008 at 7:54 amFrom the Associated Press:
The Bush administration on Wednesday released $100 million in disaster relief to West Coast salmon fishermen, $70 million less than the amount Congress approved to help those hurt by the sudden collapse of the Pacific Coast salmon fishing industry. The salmon collapse left thousands of fishermen and dependent businesses struggling to make ends meet, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said, adding that the disaster aid package will help them get back on their feet.
Of the initial $100 million, about $63 million will go to California, $25 million to Oregon and $12 million to Washington state, officials said. The breakdown is based on the projected economic impacts of the fishing shutdown in each state.
The failure stemmed from the sudden collapse of the chinook salmon run in California’s Sacramento River, where the salmon return to spawn. Scientists are studying the causes of the collapse, with possible factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution.
Salmon advocates and congressional Democrats complained that the Bush administration was shortchanging fishermen in the three states by $70 million. Congress approved $170 million in disaster relief as part of a recent farm bill.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., accused the Bush administration of “trying to steal money from salmon fishermen to give it to an incompetent defense contractor” that is overseeing the 2010 Census.
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Inclusion in public lands bill good for San Joaquin River restoration
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 18, 2008 at 6:22 amFrom the Modesto Bee, this news article/editorial:
The restoration of the San Joaquin River moved a step closer last week when a Senate committee approved a version of a public-lands bill that includes the ambitious plan. We hope this means we’re at least a little closer to seeing a resolution of the decades-old fight over restoration of 60 miles of riverbed that has been dry since the completion of Friant Dam.
The river bill is part of a larger Omnibus Federal Land Management Act that has some 90 separate components. Restoring flows north from near Fresno won’t be cheap. The most conservative estimates put the price tag at around $500 million; most people feel it will take at least $1 billion. But the alternatives to spending so much money are even less attractive.
The bill — and the money that comes with it — are needed to implement the settlement reached in a lawsuit that was filed in 1988 and resolved in 2006. Part of that agreement would take some Sierra snowmelt now diverted to farms south of Fresno and let it run north down the river channel.
Environmentalists who filed the suit and farmers who want to keep using the water agreed to the settlement for different reasons. Environmentalists want to see historic salmon runs restored; farmers want to see their very livelihoods protected.
Read more from the Modesto Bee by clicking here.
Cold water rings dinner bell for West Coast salmon
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 10, 2008 at 6:13 amFrom the Associated Press:
A federal oceanographer says a flip-flop in atmospheric conditions is creating a feast for salmon and other sea life off the West Coast, reversing a trend that contributed to a virtual shutdown of West Coast salmon fishing this summer.
Bill Peterson of NOAA Fisheries in Newport, Ore., said Tuesday the change in cycle of an atmospheric condition known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation last fall has brought cold water flows from the Gulf of Alaska, which are carrying an abundance of tiny animals known as copepods that are the foundation of the food chain.
It’s unknown how long the good times will last, but Peterson said ocean surveys of chinook salmon in June found lots of yearling juveniles, which should grow up to be plentiful stocks of adults by 2010. Coho surveys start in a couple weeks.
Peterson said last spring that he expected the rebound, and the confirmation of his expectations were reported by The Oregonian. While the cycle used to last as long as 20 years, it has lately taken about four years for conditions to change; but no one knows for sure what the future will bring, Peterson added.
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
San Joaquin proposal part of big public lands bill
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 7, 2008 at 7:28 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Ambitious San Joaquin River restoration plans are part of a huge public lands bill whose national scope brings both risk and reward.
Senators returning to work next week will confront a 760-page package that wraps together more than 90 separate bills. One would restore water flows and salmon runs in the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam.
The river bill is big just by itself, with an estimated price tag of several hundred million dollars. The rest of the legislation is even bigger, covering everything from a new West Virginia wilderness to a proposed William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site in Hope, Ark.
“A large package like this will draw more bipartisan support,” noted Democratic Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno. “You have more collective interest, and it’s bipartisan.” But the same size that attracts multiple sponsors can also make measures like the Omnibus Federal Land Management Acts Bill a big, fat target.
With only a few weeks remaining in the congressional session, lawmakers will have to balance the bill’s benefits against its potential political costs.
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Wolk’s fish rescue plans bill waiting to be sent to governor’s desk
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 5, 2008 at 6:30 amFrom Dan Bacher:
The California State Assembly voted 70 to 3 Saturday, August 30, to approve AB 1806, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk’s “Fish Rescue Plans” bill. The bill is now waiting to be sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk for his signature.
The bill, recently passed in an amended and watered down version by the State Senate, was sent to the assembly for concurrence. The original version of the bill would have provided long-needed full mitigation for the tremendous losses to Delta fisheries caused by the state and federal water projects, but Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District and the rest of the state’s “Hydraulic Brotherhood” put last minute pressure upon Senators to defeat the bill by a 21 (no) to 18 (yes) vote.
Wolk (D-Davis), Chair of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, introduced the bill into the Assembly this February in order to prevent future fishery disasters like the Prospect Island fish kill from taking place. In November 2007, the Bureau of Reclamation, given the go ahead by the Department of Fish and Game, drained the flooded island in the north end of the California Delta to repair a levee without making any provisions for rescuing the thousands of fish stranded on the island.
A breakdown in communications between agencies, along with a lack of planning, lack of knowledge of fish rescue technique and concerns about liability resulted in a huge fish kill where thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, sunfish, largemouth bass, threadfin shad and other fish perished at Prospect Island. Finally, a courageous group of volunteers, coordinated by Bob McDaris and Jeffrey Nash, were given the necessary approval to begin the rescue. The volunteers saved 1831 striped bass and tens of thousands of other species.
“The Legislature’s passage of AB 1806 is a strong step towards preventing further losses to our state’s fisheries like the destructive loss of life we saw on Prospect Island, and I want to thank everyone in the fishing community who worked so hard to move this legislative effort forward,” said Wolk.
Fish-kill compromise: Assembly bill establishes rescue plan for stranded fish
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 4, 2008 at 6:27 amFrom the Sacramento News & Review:
In Thanksgiving week of 2007, avid duck hunters Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff’s Marina in Freeport, and John Soto, a Delta hay farmer, decided to “scout” for ducks on the California Delta’s Prospect Island, where the Bureau of Reclamation was repairing a levee. Instead of ducks, a horrific sight greeted the two shocked sportsmen—thousands of fish, including many large adult striped bass, were stranded and dying in the draining waters of the flooded island.
McDaris immediately planned a fish rescue and lined up a long list of volunteers. Hundreds of fishermen anxiously waited to aid in rescue efforts but were forced to wait nearly two weeks until the state could resolve liability concerns, permit requests and other bureaucratic delays.
After tens of thousands more fish died, the volunteers were finally able to conduct a fish rescue in early December. The volunteers rescued 1,831 striped bass, as well as tens of thousands of Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, sunfish, threadfin shad, black bass and other species in an enormously successful effort.
To prevent similar fish-kill fiascos, Davis Assemblywoman Lois Wolk introduced Assembly Bill 1806, the Fish Rescue Plans bill, in the Legislature this February. The original version of the bill provided procedures for fish-rescue plans, along with provisions for full mitigation for damages caused to Delta fisheries by the operation of the state and federal water projects.
Read more from the Sacramento News & Review by clicking here.
New report tells where to find clean sport fish in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 3, 2008 at 6:12 amThanks to David over at Westchester Parents for sending me this link! From the San Francisco Chronicle’s Village Green blog:
The State Water Resources Control Board has released a new big report showing results of tests on wild fish all over California.
For the first time, the nonprofit science center, the San Francisco Estuary Institute in Oakland, has prepared the fish report for the board by researching past contamination studies from lakes and bays over the past 25 years.
Anglers can find maps and historical narratives in the 150-page report that can help them figure out the degree of contamination in their favorite fishing spots. Mercury, PCBs and pesticides, all harmful pollutants at certain levels, are the big culprits.
“The concentrations of mercury have not declined noticeably over the past 30 years, and mercury continues to be a problem in many water bodies across the state,” said Jay Davis, senior scientist at the estuary institute and team leader for the report.
Read more from the Village Green blog by clicking here. You can check out the report by clicking here.
Sea turtles explore new, urban frontier; Scientists are closely studying the progress of two breakaway colonies that have settled in the San Gabriel River and San Diego Bay
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 30, 2008 at 7:05 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
In the foamy chop of the warm-water discharge flowing into the San Gabriel River from a Long Beach power plant, a green sea turtle, wide as a manhole cover, materialized Friday just a few yards from shore. A few minutes later, an even larger sea turtle surfaced in the murky water near the plant’s thicket of steel scaffolding, steam vents and transmission lines.
Green sea turtles usually have tropical haunts — teeming coral reefs or white sandy beaches where they lay eggs — but these chunky titans live more than a mile upstream in one of Southern California’s most ecologically degraded rivers.
Little is known about the colony of at least six urban sea turtles. But a joint study by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Aquarium of the Pacific aims to determine, among other things, what they’re doing in there.
“Right now, it’s a small group of what might be considered oddball turtles,” said Peter Dutton, a senior researcher with the fisheries service. “But we have a lot to learn about them. Are they part of a more complex sea-turtle migration dynamic than we ever imagined, or just lost wanderers?”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Spawning salmon traumatized by fishing technique
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 30, 2008 at 6:56 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Fishermen are targeting salmon returning to spawn in the American River and other Central Valley streams, despite a virtual ban on all salmon fishing this year. Even worse, some anglers are using a technique called “flossing,” intended to hook salmon in the body, fin or face. The method is considered unethical by many fishermen. It appears to slip through a loophole in regulations designed to protect salmon. “They’re traumatizing these big fish,” said Alan Weingarten, a state Department of Fish and Game warden who has observed the practice on the American River.
In May, commercial and recreational fishing was banned at sea and in Central Valley rivers, but not specifically ‘catch and release’; instead anglers were urged to “use a very conservative approach” and “refrain from any catch-and-release fishing that specifically targets salmon.”
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Fishery groups take aim at ‘ridiculous’ lawsuit filed by Central Valley water users
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 27, 2008 at 12:02 pmFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:
A coalition of Central Valley water agencies that import water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta re-filed a lawsuit that attempts to blame the beleaguered striped bass for the collapse of delta smelt and Central Valley Chinook salmon — signaling their resolve to confuse the public and blame others for the decline of the Delta fisheries.
Calling themselves the “Coalition for a Sustainable Delta,” the water groups first filed a lawsuit in January 2008 claiming that efforts by the California Fish and Game Commission and California Department Fish and Game to support the striped bass accelerated the demise of endangered salmon and smelt. U.S. District Court Judge Oliver W. Wanger dismissed the complaint on July 24, 2008 because the Coalition lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. The coalition amended and re-filed their complaint on August 22, 2008.
“This lawsuit is a poorly disguised attempt to deflect attention away from the primary cause of the decline of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary,” said Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), one of three fishery groups who have intervened on behalf of the State. “The truth is that the massive increase in the diversion of water in recent years has accelerated the crash of the Delta fisheries. Although many factors such as pollution, urban development, and invasive species affect the Delta, excessive water diversion is the leading cause of the decline in the fisheries.”
Experts also disagree with the Coalition’s premise for the lawsuit. “Delta smelt, salmon and striped bass have successfully co-existed in this ecosystem for more than a century. There is no evidence that recent population declines of either delta smelt or Chinook salmon resulted from predation by striped bass, whose numbers have also collapsed,” says Dr. Tina Swanson, a nationally recognized expert on the delta smelt who is affiliated with The Bay Institute. “In contrast, there is strong scientific evidence that dams, water diversions, pollution and the collapse of the planktonic food web in the upper estuary are harming all the fishes that rely on the Bay-Delta.”
Feds launch second fish rescue effort on Prospect Island
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 25, 2008 at 5:46 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Federal officials today plan to launch a second fish rescue on Prospect Island, the Delta tract where thousands of fish died last year after a levee repair project. They’re going back because many fish were left behind the first time, and the island has begun to dry out in the August heat.
Prospect Island, at the southern end of the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel, is a tract of farmland owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Floods breached the island’s levees in two places in 2006, and thousands of fish swam onto the flooded tract.
In 2007, the bureau hired a contractor to fix the levees, then pump out the island. But no plans were made for the fish. Thousands died. Outraged fishermen pressured the bureau to rescue the survivors in November, and an estimated 10,000 fish were saved – mostly carp, catfish and bluegill.
But many more have apparently survived ever since in the shallow water left behind. That water has gotten ever shallower, and the bureau wants to save the rest before it has a bigger crisis on its hands in the form of thousands of rotting carcasses.
“We’ve been keeping an eye on it, and we could see from one week to the next the evaporation was pretty serious,” said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Louis Moore. “As the water diminishes, they’re going to get less oxygen and just create more problems.”
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.