top
Central Valley
Central Valley
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Closer to Extinction: Spring Delta smelt surveys reveal record low numbers of fish

by Dan Bacher
“The outlook for the Delta smelt population remains grim after these lows. Despite good conditions in spring 2018 and 2019, the severely depressed number of adult spawners indicates a continuing weak potential for recovery,” said independent fisheries biologist Tom Cannon in his California Fisheries Blog on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) website.
delta_smelt_-_adult__side_view___uc_davis_fish_conservation_and_culture_lab.jpg
The fall of 2018 saw a new record low number of Delta smelt — zero — in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) midwater trawl survey. This trend has continued in the spring Delta smelt 20-mm surveys conducted this year and last year, with a record low number of the smelt collected by Department scientists. (http://www.wildlife.ca.gov/…)

The Delta smelt was once the most abundant fish on the entire Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, numbering in the millions. However, massive water exports by the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project to agribusiness interests, combined with declining water quality and the impact of upstream dam operations, have put the fish on the bring of extinction under the Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom administrations.

The spring 20-mm study monitors post larval-juvenile Delta Smelt distribution and relative abundance throughout their historical spring range in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay Estuary, according to the CDFW.

According to independent fisheries biologist Tom Cannon in his California Fisheries Blog on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) website, the Late April and early May 20-mm Surveys “provide an excellent picture of the status of Delta smelt population in the estuary.”

“Since 2017, some surveys collected no Delta smelt (Figures 1-3) in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. The 2018 and 2019 survey catches (Figures 1 and 2) are a new low for Delta smelt, lower even than the 2017 survey catch (Figure 3) and the lowest in the 1995-2019 survey period,” said Cannon.

“The outlook for the Delta smelt population remains grim after these lows. Despite good conditions in spring 2018 and 2019, the severely depressed number of adult spawners indicates a continuing weak potential for recovery,” Cannon concluded.

The 8 surveys conducted by the CDFW this spring produced a total of only 13 Delta smelt. Survey #1 yielded 2 smelt, survey #2 produced 1 smelt, survey #3 yielded 0 smelt, survey #4 produced 7 smelt, survey #5 yielded 1 smelt, survey #6 produced 1 smelt, survey #7 yielded 1 smelt, and survey 8 yielded 0 smelt.

UC Davis Professor Emeritus Dr. Peter Moyle and other fisheries scientists say they don’t have an easy answer for the Delta smelt’s precipitous decline, particularly in 2017, a record water year when biologists would have expected a rebound. But fish advocates and independent scientists attribute the collapse of Delta smelt and other fish on the export of big quantities of water to agribusiness and Southern California water agencies by the state and federal pumping facilities in the South Delta over the past 50 years.

“We know what fish need,” said Bill Jennings, Executive Director CSPA. “Fish prosper when they have adequate flows and quality water. They suffer when they don’t. The question is how do we get them to survive on less water of poorer quality than they evolved with for thousands of years. The answer appears to be they can’t.”

The Delta smelt, found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the San Francisco Bay Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. If the smelt goes extinct, other West Coast fish species are likely to follow.

For more information on the fall 2018 midwater trawl survey, please read my article in the Sacramento News and Review: http://www.newsreview.com/

About the spring 20-mm study (CDFW):

Delta Smelt in the Central and South Delta areas may be entrained into the pumps of the State Water Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP). This survey gets its name from the size (20-mm) at which Delta Smelt are retained and readily identifiable at the fish facilities associated with the state and federal pumps. The 2004 Biological Opinion requires this survey to provide "recent time" (within 72 hours) information on the distribution and relative abundance of Delta Smelt throughout the Delta and the upper estuary. These data can be found under Delta Smelt Distribution and Delta Smelt Length Frequency. Based upon the data, recommendations are made to protect Delta Smelt.”

Sampling surveys range from 8-10 annually and run on a fortnightly basis covering stations throughout the Delta and downstream to the eastern portion of San Pablo Bay and Napa River. Samples are collected using an egg and larval, rigid opening net constructed of 1,600 µm mesh. Three 10-minute stepped-oblique (bottom to top) tows are made at each station.

Samples are preserved in neutral buffered formalin and then all fish larvae are sorted out and identified in a lab. The vast numbers of species (ca. 50) and amounts of detritus in the samples makes this a labor-intensive process.
§Figure 1
by Dan Bacher
sm_figure_1.jpeg
Figure 1. Catch and lengths of Delta collected in the 20-mm Survey in spring 2019. None were collected in survey 3.
§Figure 2
by Dan Bacher
sm_figure_2.jpg
Figure 2. Catch and lengths of Delta collected in the 20-mm Survey in spring 2018. None were collected in surveys 4 and 5.
§Figure 3
by Dan Bacher
sm_figure_3_.jpg
Figure 3. Catch and lengths of Delta smelt collected in the 20-mm Survey in spring 2017.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Unity Jack for Mother Earth
There is not shortage of water, so the global decline of fish must be the lowered quality of the deep state pollution of the air, land, and water by fossil fuels, and nuclear fission uncontrolled waste burn-out ( Hanford, and Fukashima)pouring radiated poison water every day to all Oceans disruption.
More and more species are rapidly disappearing daily and year around. If fossil fuel monopoly of energy continues along with Nuclear Fission Atomic power waste that isn't being contained, then the die-off of species can only increase.
The need is to re-tool the industrial revolution to wind, tidal, and solar power, that is more power than all fossil fuels including nuclear fission power.

Even the reduction of oxygen in the atmosphere to carbon-dioxide by fossil fuels is increasing daily, yearly and just that one contradiction threatens all living things with extinction. You all have a world ecology to win yet!! Elect women equally to Gender Parity for harmony and joy of our polluted specie to arrive at harmony and joy livability again globally. Workers of the world unite!! Voila!
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network