A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 30, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Urgent efforts a race against time
Freezing smelt DNA, tweaking genetics explored
Sutter County ramps up for fishing on the Sac
Tisdale boat launch finally reopens with ribbon cutting on Friday
Marysville Appeal Democrat
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Urgent efforts a race against time
Freezing smelt DNA, tweaking genetics explored
By
Can these fish, bred mostly for research, be bolstered in number and someday released to the wild?
A report issued last week says this strategy should be considered, along with possibly freezing and preserving smelt DNA or tweaking the fish's genetics to make it more adaptable to the Delta's rapidly changing environment.
Some kind of solution is urgent. Not only are smelt a bellwether for the health of the Delta overall, but the well-being of the fish is directly tied to how much water farmers and cities south of the Delta receive.
The fish are imperiled by many factors, including the pumps, exotic clams that eat their food and toxins in the water.
Some biologists are skeptical that a refuge population or other far-reaching plans would be successful.
"Those are all acts of desperation," said Peter Moyle, a fisheries biologist at the
Since 1992, a lab run by the university but funded largely by the state Department of Water Resources has bred the tiny smelt for scientific study. The fish begin their incubation in dishes big enough for a scoop or two of ice cream, then graduate into 260-gallon tanks as they grow.
With a budget of about $1 million, the lab is housed mostly in portable containers near the fish screen guarding the state's water pumps.
Researchers there can rear hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of fish, said Joan Lindberg, lab manager.
"It's better than the alternative, which is to watch the population go extinct," she said.
But these hatchery fish, if released into the Delta, would be at a major disadvantage.
They could struggle to find food, be chased down by larger fish and have difficulty spawning.
"It's not a great situation, frankly," Lindberg said. "The problem is us. Not the fish."
While efforts are under way to fix the Delta, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this year said that smelt could go extinct in the wild before the estuary heals.
And yet, there are not enough smelt at the lab, nor at a second hatchery, to ensure genetic diversity.
So the agency is considering a new $15 million to $20 million hatchery near Rio Vista.
"The goal of any program we start would be to eventually restore the population to self-sustaining," said Bob Clarke, assistant fisheries program manager for Fish and Wildlife. "That's going to take a long time."
And the underlying problems in the Delta must still be addressed, he said. Otherwise, "You don't have a chance."
The recent report by CALFED, a collaboration of state and federal agencies, says that climate change could soon make the Delta uninhabitable for smelt, and that "last-ditch measures" such as DNA freezing and refuge populations should be considered.
There are success stories: The captive breeding and reintroduction of the black-footed ferret in
As far as freezing DNA, gametes or embryos of domestic animals have been preserved in the past, but that strategy has been little used for wild species.
Furthermore, while some species can adapt to changes in their environment, in most cases, they can't keep up with that rapid change. Selective breeding or genetic engineering could help species develop tolerance to change.
"Many difficulties remain with these alternate tools for species preservation, but they do constitute a growing toolkit for conservation," the report says.
Tina Swanson, a biologist with the conservation group The Bay Institute, added her skepticism to that of others.
"We have no evidence that we can successfully reintroduce bred smelt back into the wild," she said. "I think the likelihood ... is extremely low."#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081030/A_NEWS/810300332/-1/A_NEWS14
Sutter County ramps up for fishing on the Sac
Tisdale boat launch finally reopens with ribbon cutting on Friday
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 10/30/08
By Howard Yune
Anglers will again be able to launch boats into the Sacramento River from
The new Tisdale Boat Launch Facility south of
For local sport fishers seeking a way to the river close to home, the boat launch arrives not a moment too soon, a longtime fishing guide said Wednesday.
"It's about time," said Rick Bishop of
A landowner's plan to maintain the old Tisdale ramp and pay for its upkeep fizzled when a proposed marina and restaurant never materialized, according to Al Sawyer, the county's assistant planning director. "The river is wide there, and it just deposited more and more sand," he said. "It would have been a significant effort to remove it and reactivate that boat ramp."
Construction on the $1.4 million replacement began in June, with a state grant covering the cost. The new launch is 32 feet wide to accommodate side-by-side boat trailers, and a parking slab can hold up to 43 vehicle-boat combinations.
A working ramp should draw more tourists — and their dollars — to Yuba-Sutter, Bishop predicted.
"For a two-day fishing excursion for a big corporation, I'll pull in maybe 15 people," he said. "I run three, four guide boats a day for two days; they'll stay at the Holiday Inn Express and eat at The Refuge. We're talking a few thousand dollars right there."
The opening will fall on the first day of the Sacramento's salmon season — in the only section the state Department of Fish and Game has not closed to angling because of sinking salmon populations. Biologists for the agency have predicted no more than 54,000 of the fish will migrate from the
Tisdale is the only river ramp between Knights Landing and Red Bluff, the state's boundaries for pursuing salmon this season. Anglers are limited to bagging one salmon per day through Dec. 31.#
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/ramp_70522___article.html/county_boat.html
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