Another Delta Species – Longfin Smelt – on the Brink of Extinction

Conservation Groups Petition State and Federal Governments to Protect Longfin Smelt

by Dan Bacher

In the latest development in the battle to save the California Delta, three conservation groups on August 8 petitioned the state and federal governments for endangered species protection for the longfin smelt.

A cousin to the Delta smelt, the longfin smelt has dropped to record low numbers in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and is nearing extinction in other northern California estuaries. Unlike the Delta smelt that lives only in the Bay-Delta Estuary, the longfin is historically found from Monterey Bay to Prince William Sound in Alaska.

The Bay Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Natural Resources Defense Council simultaneously asked the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Bay-Delta population of longfin smelt under the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Fish and Game Commission to list the species statewide under the California Endangered Species Act.

The longfin smelt is one of four pelagic species, including Delta smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad, that have dropped to record levels in the past several years, as documented through ongoing monitoring and analysis by a team of federal and state scientists. The fish grow to about 4 inches long and typically live two years.

The ecosystem collapse has occurred during a period of massive increases of federal and state water exports out of the Delta exceeding 1,000,000 acre feet of water of water per year. Rather than reducing exports as fishing and environmental groups have requested, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a plan to build the peripheral canal and more dams as the “solution” to the Delta’s problems.

“On the heels of the Delta smelt crisis, longfin smelt are telling us that the problems are bigger than the Delta,” said Dr. Tina Swanson, senior scientist with the Bay Institute. “We need to take a serious look to how we are managing the San Francisco Bay-Delta and California’s other vital estuaries and comprehensively deal with known problems of reduced freshwater inflows, habitat destruction, toxics and invasive species. If we don’t, we could lose keystone species from these estuary ecosystems and the commercial and sport fisheries that depend on them.”

The Bay-Delta Estuary is home to the largest and southernmost self-sustaining population of longfin smelt. Populations that once occupied the estuaries and lower reaches of Humboldt Bay and the Klamath River have also declined and may now be extinct. The longfin and Delta smelt are “indicator” species that demonstrate the health of the Delta-Bay Estuary ecosystem.

Longfin smelt were once one of the most abundant open-water fishes in the Bay-Delta and a central component of the food web that sustained other commercially important species, according to Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. Throughout the 2000s, the Bay-Delta longfin smelt population has been just three percent of levels measured less than 20 years ago. For the past four years, longfin smelt numbers have been at record lows.

“Poor management of California’s largest estuary ecosystem could claim another of our native fish species, this time the longfin smelt — a species formerly so common that it supported a commercial fishery in San Francisco Bay,” said Miller. “The decline of longfin smelt, as with Delta smelt, is absolutely correlated with reduced freshwater flow into the Bay and excessive water diversions.”

The correlation between the decline of longfin smelt and decreases in freshwater flows into the bay is also backed up by the California Department of Fish and Game on its website. “A relationship between freshwater outflow and longfin smelt abundance has been identified. The overall effect of high freshwater outflow appears to be an increase in the amount and quality of nursery habitat (creation of brackish water habitat in San Pablo Bay) and a broader dispersal of YOY (young of the year) fish, potentially increasing feeding opportunities and reducing density-dependent mortality.”

The federal and state agencies are supposed to rule within 90 days whether the petitions are merited. If they do, a decision on whether to designate the fish for listing under the federal and state endangered species acts would be due a year from the date the petition was submitted.

Longfin smelt have declined due to many of the same degraded environmental conditions that caused the collapse of the Delta smelt. These include reduced freshwater inflow to the estuary as a result of massive water diversions; loss of fish at agricultural, urban, and industrial water diversions; direct and indirect impacts of nonnative species on food supply and habitat; and lethal and sublethal effects of pesticides and toxic chemicals, according to Miller.

“First it was Delta smelt,” said Kate Poole, an attorney with NRDC. “Now it’s longfin smelt. Others will follow if we don’t watch out. Next in line are several salmon runs, sturgeon, steelhead, Sacramento splittail, striped bass and threadfin shad.”

The Delta smelt, a species already listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, recently plummeted to the lowest population levels ever recorded. The conservation groups submitted petitions in 2006 and early 2007 to the Fish and Wildlife Service and the state commission to up-list the Delta smelt’s federal and state status to endangered, a change necessary to compel fisheries agencies to implement recommended actions to protect Delta habitat for the smelt.

Why are multiple listings necessary? Wouldn’t one listing – Delta smelt, winter run chinook or longfin smelt - suffice?

Peter Galvin, conservation director of the Center for Biological Diversity, responded. “The federal and state governments are asleep at the wheel and we want as many warning lights to go off on the dashboard to wake them. That is why it’s necessary to have multiple endangered species listings. We hope that these listings will spur reform of state and federal water policy towards the Delta. We need to use every mechanism we can to address the current meltdown of longfin smelt and other species.”

More information on the longfin smelt decline and the ecosystem collapse in the Delta can be found at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/LongFinSmelt/index.html.

In a related action, the Center for Biological Diversity on August 28 filed a formal notice of intent to sue the Department of the Interior for political interference with 55 endangered species in 28 states.

According to the organization, “The notice initiates the largest substantive legal action in the 34-year history of the Endangered Species Act. At stake in the suit is the illegal removal of one animal from the endangered species list, the refusal to place three animals on the list, proposals to remove or downgrade protection for seven animals, and the stripping of protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a long list of species from Washington State to Minnesota and Texas.”

The one species removed from the endangered species list is the Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), a native large minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and California's Central Valley. Splittail are primarily freshwater fish, but are tolerant of moderate salinity.

"Historically, splittail were found as far north as Redding on the Sacramento River and as far south as the Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sacramento office. "Splittail were common in San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait following high winter flows until about 1985. They are now largely confined to the Delta, Suisun Bay, Suisun Marsh, Napa River, Petaluma River, and other parts of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary."

The Service listed the species as threatened on February 8, 1999 and removed it from the list on September 22, 2003, instead putting it on their “species of concern” list - ironically, at a time when the state and federal governments dramatically increased water exports from the Delta, putting the fish in greater jeopardy.

The splittail is impacted by the same problems - water exports, toxic chemicals and invasive species - that have resulted in the collapse of the Delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad. Of these three factors, scientists consider the timing and amount of water exports to be number one problem that has led to the collapse of Delta fish species.

“This is the biggest legal challenge against political interference in the history of the Endangered Species Act,” said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “It puts the Bush administration on trial at every level for systematically squelching government scientists and installing a cadre of political hatchet men in positions of power.”

Suckling contends that the illegal decisions were engineered by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald, who resigned in disgrace following a scathing investigation by the inspector general of misconduct at the Department of the Interior, according to Suckling. Other decisions were ordered by her boss, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Craig Manson, his special assistant Randal Bowman, and Ruth Solomon in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Some decisions were ordered by lower level bureaucrats.

“The Bush administration has tried to keep a lid on its growing endangered species scandal by scapegoating Julie MacDonald,” said Suckling, “but the corruption goes much deeper than one disgraced bureaucrat. It reaches into the White House itself through the Office of Management and Budget. By attacking the problem systematically through this national lawsuit, we will expose just how thoroughly the distain for science and for wildlife pervades the Bush administration’s endangered species program.”

Among the 55 species in legal filing are the marbled murrelet (CA, OR, WA), Florida manatee (SC to TX), Arctic grayling (MT), West Virginia northern flying squirrel (WV), California least tern (CA), brown pelican (LA, TX, PR, VI), California red-legged frog (CA), arroyo toad (CA), Mexican garter snake (AZ), piping plover (NC to TX), snowy plover (CA, OR, WA) and Preble's jumping meadow mouse (CO, WY).

Meanwhile, Barbara Barrigan-Parilla announced that Restore the Delta will be hosting a community seminar entitled “So What Is a Peripheral Pipe?” on September 19, 2007. This event will feature a community update on Restore the Delta activities, a talk on the effects of a peripheral pipe on the Delta by the Delta’s famous water rights attorney Dante Nomellini, and several other noteworthy environmental speakers. Both dinner and the program are open to the community.

The event will be held at the Sunset Bar and Grill at Tower Park Resort 14900 W. Highway 12, Lodi. A dinner buffet will be available at 6:00 p.m. The program will begin at 6:30 and last until 8:15 p.m. Dinner costs $20 per person, including tax and gratuities, and is payable at the door. Restore the Delta will provide coffee and dessert.

In addition, Restore the Delta will be asking for a free will donation to cover the program and to help with general fundraising. Please RSVP to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at your earliest convenience (Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org) in order to confirm your attendance at dinner and the event.