Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
May 31, 2007
1. Top Item
Survey of Delta smelt produces troubling results
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
THE DELTA - Finding a finger-long fish in the West Coast's largest estuary sounds difficult.
But it's never been this hard.
Surveys by biologists this spring have turned up record-low numbers of juvenile Delta smelt - just 25 fish as of last week, dismal compared with the 326 smelt that had been counted at this time last year.
Even by the latter standard, the smelt was in danger of extinction, conservationists said. Now that danger may be imminent.
State officials say they've reacted by slowing down the large export pumps near
Conservationists aren't happy with the government's response and are threatening to sue - again.
"We have a species that is so close to being gone, it's horrifying," said Tina Swanson, a biologist for the conservation group The Bay Institute.
The problem is that the smelt is an annual species. Most of the fish live only one year.
The alarmingly low numbers of juveniles this spring means that those who survive to adulthood will have difficulty spawning next year.
"It's a miracle to find one smelt," said
The smelt has little commercial, recreational or aesthetic value but is considered a benchmark for the overall health of the Delta.
If the smelt goes, some biologists warn that species more valuable to humans, such as the splittail or striped bass, could be next.
State officials have temporarily delayed increasing pumping flows to the 6,000 cubic feet per second slated to be exported this summer. That's enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in about 14 seconds.
For now, the pumps are churning about 1,200 cubic feet per second. The goal is to prevent the Old and Middle rivers from flowing backward toward the pumps, sucking smelt into the danger zone.
It's not clear how long the reduced pumping might last. The potential impact on water users is "pretty dicey," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources.
More than two-thirds of Californians rely on water pumped from the Delta. The state has purchased some water to offset the loss. But in an already-dry year, some farms and cities must rely heavily on groundwater and reservoir storage, Johns said.
Several other measures have been taken to protect smelt, Johns said, including sending more water down the
He says, however, that the pumps are only part of the problem.
The Department of Water Resources and the Department of Fish and Game say that toxic contaminants found in the Sacramento River system this year might be part of what's plaguing smelt, as well as exotic clams that gobble up plankton needed by smelt and other fish.
B.J. Miller, a biologist who consults for water contractors, said the smelt may be starving to death.
"There's a whole lot of people who want to blame the pumps for the Delta smelt problem," he said. "Look at this year. They didn't salvage any smelt at the state pumps, and they (the fish) are going in the tank."
Johns confirmed, however, that it's possible no smelt have been taken at the pumps because the population is so depleted.
Last week, state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the government hasn't done enough to protect the smelt. In a letter to the Water Resources and Fish and Game departments, he called the latest smelt numbers "frightening."
Earlier this year, a judge ruled that the state had never gotten proper permits to kill smelt and salmon at the pumps. The judge ordered the pumps shut down, and the state is appealing that order.
Meanwhile, a coalition of conservation groups announced Thursday it intends to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not responding to a March 2006 request to upgrade the smelt from threatened to endangered status. Conservationists are requesting a similar move by the state government.
"If the agencies are sincere in saying that they want to protect this fish and preserve it and ultimately recover it, then they can't just sit on their thumbs and hope things will be better," The Bay Institute's Swanson said. "Our first objective has to be to save as many of these young fish as possible so there are fish left to spawn." #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070531/A_NEWS/705310323
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