Second Fish Rescue at Prospect Island Planned Today

Second Fish Rescue at Prospect Island Today

by Dan Bacher

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is helping coordinate a 1-day effort to rescue fish remaining inside Prospect Island in the California Delta where a huge fish kill took place last November.

This rescue will take place today, August 25, 2008, starting at about 10:00 a.m. A previous rescue effort, spearheaded by Bob McDaris, Jeffrey Nash, and other volunteers took place in November 2007 after the Bureau began draining the island during a levee repair.

After a long delay, federal and state officials allowed the volunteers to conduct the highly successful fish rescue. The dozens of volunteers rescued 1831 striped bass, as well as tens of thousands of Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, sunfish, threadfin shad, black bass and other species.

Biologists with the California Department of Fish and Game and Reclamation will capture the fish and transport them over the island levee. This small-scale activity may be aided by some experienced volunteers who assisted with the November 2007 effort.

"We need about 10 volunteers," said Louis Moore, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "This second rescue effort has been planned because a survey of the remaining aquatic habitat inside Prospect Island has revealed a larger-than-expected number of fish that survived the dewatering of the island in 2007. As the available habitat has shrunk due to evaporation, its ability to support these fish has also diminished."

"Most of the fish likely to be transported on Monday are introduced species like carp and sunfish, but it is likely a few Sacramento blackfish and possibly other native minnows will also be removed," Moore added.

State and federal officials contacted Bob McDaris while he was on a trip to New Mexico to see if he could help with the rescue. He is leaving from his trip 4 days early to come back to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. "I'll be back in Sacramento today and I am committed 100 percent to the rescue as soon as I get home," he said. "If we save any fish, it's a lot better than doing nothing."

"The reason why the state and federal governments are doing the rescue this time is because of the big stink that we made about the fish kill last November," emphasized McDaris.

As the rescue takes place, an amended version of SB 1806, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk's Fish Rescue Plans Bill, is expected to go before the Assembly for a vote this week. If passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, the bill would establish protocol for rescue plans in the event of future fishery disasters like the one that occurred at Prospect Island last year.

For more information, please contact Louis Moore at 916-335-9755 or Cliff's Marina at 916-665-1611.