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Volunteers Save Thousands of Fish, Investigations into Delta Fish Kill Proceed
Fish Sniffer Magazine -
December
03,
2007
By Dan Bacher
Volunteers descended on Prospect Island, located on the north end of the California Delta between Miner Slough and the Sacramento Deepwater Channel, over the past three days and saved thousands of fish that otherwise would have perished.
A force of 42 volunteers rescued 1466 stranded striped bass on Saturday, December 1 from a certain death on the island. On Sunday, the volunteers saved an additional 177 striped bass before concluding the operation early because of rising water conditions on the island, bringing the number of total of fish rescued since Friday to 1831 stripers.
In addition, anglers using nets and buckets transported largemouth bass, bluegill, Sacramento blackfish (a native minnow), tule perch, Sacramento splittail, catfish, golden shiners and other fish from a seep in the levee where a variety of fish species were concentrated. When you include baitfish and fry, many thousands of fish in addition to the stripers were saved.
After receiving permission from Bureau of Reclamation personnel on Friday morning, a dozen volunteers that afternoon rescued 188 striped bass from Prospect Island and put them into Miner Slough, according to Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport.
While I was there Saturday and Friday, I didn't see any fish that died when put back into the water. The concern that DFG staffer Terry Foreman voiced about potential fish mortality during a meeting with volunteers, DFG staff and Bureau of Reclamation officials on Friday was completely unfounded, as evidenced by the 100 percent success of the rescue operation.
The operation ended on Sunday when the water became too deep from water leaching under the repaired levee break section for the volunteers to retrieve the remaining striped bass.
"We set up the logistics Friday afternoon and tried different methods of rescuing the fish," said Gary Rios, a retired West Sacramento fire chief and an avid angler. "So we had a system in place for our operation on Saturday and Sunday.
The volunteers netted the fish and put them into 55 gallon tanks. Rather than using ATVs, which get bogged down in the thick mud, the rescue volunteers used an Arctic Cat to transfer the fish to the base of the levee. Then other volunteers net the fish from the tanks and put them through a pipe back into Miner Slough
"It was a great effort by anglers and hunters, said McDaris. We developed a nice system. The older guys helped on the levee with tasks such as signing up people and putting the fish into the release pipe, while the younger folks netting the fish on the island and put them into the tanks."
"I first thought it would be good if we could save 300 to 500 fish," he added. "But we have saved many more than we originally expected. When you add up all of the fish we saved, including large and smaller fish, we rescued well over 6,000 fish.
Rios noted that one reason for the lack of fish mortality was because they put the fish in saline water to prevent them from becoming stressed. "If we found a fish that didn't appear to be doing well, we put it into an ice chest with the saline solution and nursed it until it recovered," he stated.
Jeff McCracken, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman, and Mike Chotkowski, Bureau fishery biologist, accompanied and oversaw the volunteers both days. A DFG biologist also assisted in the rescue effort on Saturday.
Among those who assisted in the fish recovery effort on Saturday were licensed captains Jim Cox of Touch of Grey Sportfishing and J.D. Richie of J.D. Richie Sportfishing.
"As a sportfishing captain who takes fish out of the water during the course of the year, I thought it was good to come out and put fish back into the water," Cox quipped.
Cox is the president of the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), an organization that is active in the battle by recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists and Indian Tribes to save the California Delta from plans by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to build the peripheral canal, construct more dams and export more northern California water to southern California. Other CSBA volunteers also assisted in the rescue.
Members of the Granite Bay Flycasters, Full Speed Fishing, California Waterfowl Association and other clubs and conservation organizations also participated in the effort. Jeff Nash of Full Speed Fishing, in addition to providing a leadership role in the fish rescue effort, set up a website to update the daily effort: http://www.rescuethefish.org,
McDaris noted that the rescue effort wouldn't have been possible without the support of Tim Page of Elk Grove, who loaned his Arctic Cat.
Meanwhile, the state and federal governments are conducting investigations into the fish kill - and why federal fishery agencies and the DFG signed off on the levee repair that led to the kill and were so slow to respond after they were made aware of the huge fish die-off.
Tens of thousands of fish of a variety of species perished after the fish became stranded on the island. It was only after Bob Simms, KFBK Radio Outdoor Show host, and McNaris alerted the DFG and Bureau of Reclamation of the fish kill that the federal and state agencies began investigating this environmental disaster.
Assembly member Lois Wolk, chair of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, plans to hold a hearing on Thursday, December 6 to investigate the fish kill on Prospect Island. Diane Colburn, committee staffer, said a press release with full details will go out today (December 3).
The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is planning to file a Freedom of Information Act request on documents pertaining to the Prospect Island fish kill. "We would like to see paper and electronic interagency discussions about the BOR's project between BOR and US Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service," said Jim Martin, RFA West Coast Regional Director on December 1.
"The following excerpt shows that the feds knew there were endangered winter run chinook and delta smelt in the area," said Martin. "They spent $5 million on restoring the area ten years ago." http://www.coastalamerica.gov/text/regions/sw/prospect.html
Jim Crenshaw, president of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, brought up a pressing question that needs to be addressed in any investigation. "Has anybody asked if or how the Bureau is going to mitigate for the fish losses?" he said.
After traveling out to the island and seeing the carnage, Gary Adams, president of the California Striped Bass Association, blasted the Bureau of Reclamation and DFG for their role in the fish kill. He linked the fish kill to the current push by the federal and state governments to export more water to southern California and west side San Joaquin Valley agribusiness.
Its criminal what the federal and state governments did on Prospect Island, said Adams. It really reflects the attitude of the Bureau and the state of California, whose attitude is that serving the needs of developers and water contractors comes first, while the fish are not relevant.
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