A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 18, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Last of salmon trucked to San Pablo Bay
Contra Costa Times 6/17/08
By Mike Taugher
The routes to the ocean followed by
They migrate instead in trucks down U.S. Highways 70 and 50, Interstate 80 and State Route 12.
On Tuesday, the nonprofit Fishery Foundation of California completed 21/2 months of transplanting the output of state-run salmon hatcheries — 20 million fish — to the top of
Trucking salmon to the Bay is not new, but this year is unusual because the entire production from state-run hatcheries was trucked downstream and allowed to acclimate in "net pens" before being released.
The reason:
Something had to be done.
Salmon carried by truck to net pens in the Bay have a two- to four-times better chance of surviving and returning to spawn as adults than do fish released directly from the hatcheries, according to the state Fish and Game Department.
Going by highway helps the fish bypass the pollution, predators, pump intakes and other dangers in the deteriorating Delta.
No one suggests the plan is ideal. But with evidence increasing that
"We're in such dire straits, this is an important piece of the puzzle," Fishery Foundation's project manager Kari Burr said on the boat ride to the Rodeo wharf. "I would hate to see everything go to hatchery fish. ... If we could give ourselves a little wriggle room, nature is resilient."
For salmon that are raised in a hatchery, trucked to an acclimation pen and let loose, it is unclear how well they will fare and where they will return to spawn. After all, they can't rely on a truck driver to get them back home.
So about 5 million of them — one in four — were tagged with wires so that a few years from now when the fish return, researchers should be able to determine whether the hatchery fish are returning to native streams or whether they are straying to other streams, said Fish and Game department spokesman Harry Morse.
"In two to three years, we should start to get some statistically valid information," Morse said.
In all, about 20 million hatchery salmon were taken since early April in ice-chilled river water to wharves in
Burr and her assistants, biologist Roxanne Kessler and deck hand Troy Winchell, arranged the nets on a floating platform while balancing on 12-inch boards that bobbed on the waves.
From the parking lot, which was perhaps 18 feet higher than water level, more than 200,000 of the fish were spilled down a more than 100-foot plastic pipe, where they shot into the waters near the
"Last time for the season," Burr shouted.
Innumerable smolts, 2 to 3 inches long, flitted and flopped around before settling lower in the water and gathering into schools. Once they acclimated, the fish were fed for the first time in days — a fast imposed to reduce fecal contamination during the truck ride.
The fish were entering a dangerous world. Striped bass know where to find the salmon babies. And striped bass fishers knew where to find the stripers.
A handful caught several fish near the pens during the operation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of birds, mostly gulls but also pelicans and terns, waited for the pens to be hauled out into the currents below the
When the fish were released, pelicans dove and gulls picked the injured fish off the surface.
"See you later, fish," Kessler said as the last of the nets was emptied and hauled out.
"See you in three years, I hope," added Burr.#
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_9617514
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