Fall Survey: Delta Smelt And Other Fish Populations On Downward Spiral

Fall Survey: Delta Smelt And Other Fish Populations On Downward Spiral

By Dan Bacher

November’s San Francisco Bay oil spill and Prospect Island fish kill were huge environmental disasters spurred by government ineptitude and poor planning. At the same time, an even worse environmental calamity, the collapse of the California Delta food chain, is taking place as you read this, courtesy of the same state and federal governments that blundered during the oil spill and fish kill.

The delta smelt and other California Delta fish populations continue to plummet towards extinction, according to preliminary data from the latest fall midwater trawl survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG).

The population collapse has been caused by record state and federal water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the West Coast’s largest and most significant estuary, since 2001. For example, State Water Project exports increased from 1.8 million acre feet of water in the 1990’s to 3.7 million acre feet of water in 2006, according to Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

Although toxics and invasive species also play a role in the “pelagic organism decline” of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad, government biologists, fishery conservation groups and environmental groups generally agree that changes in water exports are the main factor in the aquatic food chain collapse.

“The majority of these water exports consist of subsidized irrigation water that goes to agribusiness for subsidized crops that require subsidies to control and dispose of their drainage water,” said Jennings.

The DFG has conducted a trawl net survey of Delta fish populations every fall for the past 40 years. This November the Delta smelt index, a relative measure of abundance, was only 5, the second lowest on record.

The fall index to date for delta smelt is only 18. Although the final results won’t be disclosed until the data for December is compiled, there is little chance that the number will go up significantly. By comparison, the total fall index was 27 in 2005 and 41 in 2006.

The smelt is a 2 to 3 inch long indicator species found only in the Bay-Delta Estuary. The species was listed as “threatened” under both the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) and California Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 1993. The species began recovering in 1995 with the arrival of big water years, but declined dramatically after 2001 with increased exports out of the Delta.

The longfin smelt also took a huge dive in the fall survey. The fall 2007 data to date shows an index of only 7. This number compares to 129 total in 2007 and 1949 in 2006, both years when the population was extremely low.

The longfin smelt is found in several estuaries and lakes along the northern Pacific coast of North America, but has undergone a dramatic decline in the Delta concurrent with the delta smelt’s collapse.

The California Fish and Game Commission, at the direction of the supposedly “green” Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in October rejected an emergency petition by several environmental groups to list the fish as “endangered” after only 4 fish were found in the Delta during the summer trawl survey by the DFG.

Not only are the delta and longfin smelt in dramatic decline, but the Sacramento splittail, a native minnow, and American shad, threadfin shad and striped bass are undergoing similar collapses. The population index for the splittail, 5 in 2005 and 4 in 2006, was only 1 for the entire fall to date.

The threadfin shad, a hardy fish that surprised state and federal scientists with its precipitous decline, has a fall index to date of only 254. By contrast, the index was 2866 in fall 2005 and 2225 in fall 2006.

The American shad population index to date this fall is only 496, with an index of 116 in November. The total fall index was 1738 in 2005 and 2313 in 2005.

The juvenile striped bass index was only 15 for November and 81 to date this fall. The total fall index was 121 in 2005 and 363 in 2006 for this popular gamefish species.

Meanwhile, Central Valley chinook salmon, which have to pass through the Delta on the downstream migration to the ocean and on their upstream spawning runs, are also in steep decline after a decade of good runs. Although the exact numbers of fish that returned to spawn won’t be known until January, after carcass surveys and hatchery numbers are compiled, the runs are alarming poor this fall.

“The fall run is way down on the American, Feather, Mokelumne and Sacramento rivers, the winter run is only around 3,000 fish to date and the spring run on the Sacramento is lower than normal,” said Jennings. “Nobody knows where the salmon that were projected to return over the last two years are.”

Jennings is outraged that state and federal government agencies that are entrusted to take care of fish, wildlife and the environment have gone AWOL in their duty to protect natural resources.

“The bottom line is that we are now witnessing a crash of our fishery resources and the state and federal government agencies are unable to exercise their ability to protect the public trust,” said Jennings.

As the Delta fishery collapsed, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Governor continued to push for a bond measure featuring a peripheral canal and two dams for the February ballot. However, as compromise, meetings, and communications became increasingly rare during the Governor’s special session, a bond did not make it onto the February ballot. The California Chamber of Commerce then filed initiatives for the November Ballot on December 2, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.

“The California Chamber filed four different initiatives from which they will soon choose one to begin gathering signatures for the November election,” said Parrilla. “All four proposals in different degrees call for the building or planning of a peripheral canal. All four proposals seek to undo legislative oversight of water policy in California. And all four proposals seek to remove the goal of habitat restoration for the California Delta. In other words, there would be no guarantees to protect water quality and quantity for our region.”

Restore the Delta has heard from several environmental organizations that the price tag for a 2008 bond that would include a new conveyance system around the Delta and new dams would be around $11.9 billion. This would create an annual repayment rate for the state of $700 million dollars, according to Parrilla.

At the same time, Steve Evans, Conservation Director from Friends of the River, recently completed comprehensive research showing that Southern California urban water districts rely on the Delta for only 16% of their water supply, debunking the myth that reductions in exports would result in the collapse of the Southern California economy.

To prevent the further collapse of Delta smelt and other fish, the Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations must reduce levels of water exports back to those of the year 2000 and halt all plans to increase water exports. Unless that happens, the Delta smelt will slide into the abyss of extinction and other species are sure to follow.

For more information, contact:

Bill Jennings, Chairman, Executive Director, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Watershed Enforcers, 3536 Rainier Avenue, Stockton, CA 95204, t: 209-464-5067, c: 209-938-9053, f: 209-464-5174, e: deltakeep [at] aol.com

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Campaign Director, Restore the Delta, Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org, http://www.restorethedelta.org, ph: 209-479-2053, PO Box 691088, Stockton, CA 95269