CSPA Advisory 2.13.08

1. Contractors Deliver Strike at Striped Bass and the Delta

2. More on the Salmon Collapse

3. New Assault Launched on the Fish and Delta!

Just when I though it couldn’t get much worse for the public’s Central Valley fisheries than the tragic collapse of the fall-run Chinook salmon, growers from Kern County decided to fired a shot at the heart of the Delta and its once premier sport fishery, striped bass. They same shot was also aimed at people who love to fish (about 3 million anglers state-wide), and at the very existence of the Delta’s ecosystem. My point is they don’t give a damn about the people who fish or the public who owns the water and the fish, or even those that just care about the Delta and and estuary of which it is a part.

Striped Bass were introduced in 1887 and again in 1892 by the Fish and Game Commission to establish a public fishery in the Bay-Delta estuary. After nearly seventy years it became the premier fishery of the estuary and a surrogate species for the health of the Delta estuary during the 1970's & 80's. The reason this happened was because striped bass are true estuarine species that has critical needs shared by other Delta species. These life sustaining requirements were demonstrable, in part, by scientific correlations between the fisheries population size and the fresh water that used to flow through the Delta into Suisun and Honker Bay’s to maintain striped bass and the health of the Delta.

As water exports began taking a ever increasing toll during the last four decades, the fish fell from being one of the greatest urban sport fisheries of all time to being targeted for extinction because some believed too much of the Delta’s fresh water was needed to maintain the fisheries abundance. When the population fell from 4 million to 1 million during the past decade, the attacks to eradicate it escalated under the disguise that it was “nonnative” species. When some of these same folks figured out that fish in the estuary had an actual symbiotic relationship with the Delta’s food web and that they might eat species listed under Endangered Species Acts just as it was being eaten, it because a scapegoat and a target of opportunity

Some of these growers, who use the public’s water to produce their crops, don’t seem to care that the fishery generated a great deal of economic activity to regional and local economies that also helped to feed and cloth people by supplying $50 million annually to Bay Area and rural economies. Just like the nonnative species grown by the state’s agricultural sector, the fishery is economically important.

The suit filed by the folks calling themselves the “Coalition for a Sustainable Delta” would remove game fish status from striped bass and make it vulnerable to unlimited exploitation and potential extinction. But, this just might do away with something far more important. That would be the “x2" standard (short for a salinity isohaline) set by the State Water Board to enable enough fresh water to get down to Suisun and Honker Bays where many fisheries and the foodweb need it for their productivity and survival.

Without an outflow standard to protect the fishery, all that water just might be available for export to growers. Perhaps even to growers like those who live in Kern County where much of the desert that once surrounded Bakersfield has turned green, mostly due to nonnative crops and nonnative people who are very fond of perpetuating nonnative myths.

There are several hundred nonnative game fish in the state, many of them intentionally introduced like the striped bass. If this litigation prevails, and if any of these nonnative public fishery resources swim in the Delta, I’m betting they are next on the committee’s chopping block.

Beneath the surface, it appears these growers from Bakersfield are attempting to make people pay for trying to protect what little remains of one of the greatest living ecosystems on the planet. Fighting for the right for Delta smelt or any other Delta fishery to have the water they need to survive has become a necessity if we are to maintain a natural resource legacy that belongs to the public. We don’t have another choice like our growers from down South.

 From the Sacramento Bee

By Matt Weiser - mweiser@sacbee.com
Published 12:44 am PST Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The big, tasty and hard-fighting striped bass is a top prize for fishermen in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. For everybody else who depends on the Delta's limited water, the racy chrome fish has become a flash point in California's next water war.

Farmers in arid Kern County last week sued the state for protecting the striper as a sportfish. They allege the nonnative striper has been allowed to damage the Delta, preying on endangered native fish, including salmon and the ghostly Delta smelt.

The legal action came like a Taser strike to the state's vocal angling community. And several water law experts say the case may stand as the first blast in what's expected to be a protracted battle over California's most precious resource.

The new lawsuit shows that this war's front has moved beyond the traditional realm of environmentalists versus government. Rhetoric has also hardened between interest groups that have spent the past 10 years trying to cooperate on water issues.

"They're executioners," Roger Mammon said, bluntly labeling water exporters.

Mammon is a board member of the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association. "They don't care about the Delta except that it's water and money in their pocket. I think they're full of it."

Anglers call the striped bass innocent. Yes, it's a predator, but they say it successfully coexisted historically with salmon and smelt, and all thrived. Instead, they blame water exporters – including the Kern farmers – for a bottomless thirst that has pumped Delta water to millions of homes and farm fields at a record pace over the past seven years.

"What's new is that the crisis is upon us," said Dante Nomellini Sr., a longtime water lawyer in Stockton. "This thing's going to heat up a lot more than what we've got right now."

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the largest estuary on the West Coast. It naturally collects about two-thirds of the state's runoff and funnels it to the sea via San Francisco Bay, along the way providing vital habitat for an array of fish and other wildlife.

But it's also the hub of California's complex water distribution system. The 740,000-acre estuary is the diversion point for state and federal water projects serving 25 million people and more than 2 million acres of rich farmland. Those diversions, at separate pumping facilities near Tracy, reverse natural water flows, alter habitat and kill millions of fish each year.

A recent truce in California's water wars began in 1994 with creation of the CalFed Bay-Delta Program. This collaboration between government agencies, water consumers and environmentalists sought to protect the Delta and improve water deliveries.  But CalFed did not have the money and authority to meet all its goals and is now being reformulated, leaving most participants feeling shortchanged.

Since 2001, water exports from the Delta have neared record levels while numerous fish populations sank – including the threatened smelt, now near extinction. This combination made litigation seem inevitable.

"A number of folks feel, for whatever reason, they are reduced to pursuing litigation as the last available option to vindicate their interests," said Richard Frank, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Berkeley.

The truce may have ended last August, when a federal judge in Fresno ordered Delta water exports reduced to protect the smelt. That case was brought by environmental groups.

The striped bass case can be considered return fire.

That's according to Michael Boccadoro, spokesman for the plaintiffs. Calling themselves the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, they include the Belridge, Berrenda Mesa, Lost Hills and Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa water districts. All are in Kern County and depend on Delta water.

Boccadoro said water exports get too much blame for the Delta's collapse, while other threats are ignored. The coalition fears this narrow focus will further harm fish, followed by more water cutbacks, creating a vicious cycle that will only hurt farmers.

Other threats they cite are poor water quality from upstream farm and urban runoff, and thousands of unchecked farm water diversions in the Delta itself.

The coalition will "absolutely" act on such issues, he said. They won't all be legal actions," Boccadoro said. "But there will be actions on each of the issues we believe are causing decline of the estuary."

Frank found it ironic that a farm group brought legal action over the Delta, when it is farmers who often decry court meddling in the Delta. But he said this signifies the new battle at hand.

"It looks like at least some of them have decided the best defense is a good offense," he said.

Nomellini agrees. He represents the Central Delta Water Agency – farmers who cultivate the Delta's rich soil.

On Delta issues, these farmers have different interests from those in Kern County. Generally, they seek to preserve the Delta to avoid disrupting farm communities, and oppose excessive water exports which often make Delta waters too salty for their crops.  Yet they have a kinship with their farm brethren in the south. That may be eroding.

"Our farmers view the other guys as breaching faith," said Nomellini. "They're part of the water grab. I don't know what we can do now other than just fight.”

                                                                        #

2. The Salmon Collapse previously noted in our last Advisory is the subject of the editorial below. A good deal of this editorial is on target, but I must take exception to several statements. The Governor’s motivation for establishing the Delta Vision process was necessitated by SB 1574 authored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl who made sure the goals included restoring the Delta and its fishery resources to sustainable levels. The Governor has long advocated a Peripheral Canal and new dams due to his predilection for concrete instead of conservation. The Kuehl legislation requires proof that any such proposal recommend by the governor actually be able to fix the problems in the Delta and its fisheries.

We should also put under scrutiny the alleged “Marine biologists theories” that the salmon crisis can be attributed to ocean conditions - linked to global warming - that disrupt marine life cycles. I don’t doubt that it could be a part of the problem, its just that I’ve not seen any scientific reports or data that would scientifically support this statement. If anyone has come across such scientific theories and data, please let me know where it can be found!                                      

Delta's Central Valley Chinook salmon are in deep distress.
Stockton Record Editorial - February 8, 2008

Their rapidly disappearing numbers during their fall run upstream are alarming evidence of the misuse and declining health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's. The collapse also reflects oceanic changes and the continuing clash of humanity and wildlife.

How bad is it?  After decades of hovering between 200,000 and 400,000, the Central Valley full-run Chinook salmon population peaked at 804,000 in 2002. It's been sinking ever since, with only 90,000 adults returning to spawn in 2007, according to federal regulators.  Even worse, they counted only 2,000 jacks -- 2-year-old male fish. That's the lowest number ever recorded. In previous years, there would be 40,000 of them. Jacks are an indicator of how many adult Chinook will return. So the number could be even lower in 2008.

The number of Chinook - or king - salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries dropped by 88 percent in 2007. This disturbing decline is the latest in a series of ecological setbacks for the troubled estuary:

Delta smelt could be nearing extinction. The number of striped bass sank to the third-lowest level ever in 2007. Two species of shad are in unprecedented danger. The salmon disaster, which threatens commercial fishing operations on the California, Oregon and Washington coastlines, will cause negative economic impacts.

Pacific Fishery Management Council members will meet in March in Sacramento to discuss options. One possibility would be shutting down completely the salmon fishing season, which is scheduled to begin in April. That would damage the fishing industry and cause consumer prices to escalate rapidly. Beyond that, the salmon crisis is certain to be the focal point of an ongoing debate regarding state water policy. All aspects of the situation must be thoroughly and fairly examined.

Too many people with special interests - sport fishing groups, environmentalists, agricultural and urban water managers - focus too narrowly on their perceived solutions to a very complex problem.

The San Joaquin River's restricted flow is critical. Court-ordered increases in releases from Friant Dam can't start soon enough. Pumping stations near Tracy have so threatened fish species that a judge shut down diversions to Southern California for 10 days in June. The fear of that happening again prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to establish the Delta Vision Task Force.

So far, that group's best recommendation has been to increase storage capacity for water runoff during wet years. Its worst idea has been to build a better north-south "linkage," a euphemism for a peripheral canal. Neither option addresses sustainable changes that would benefit aquatic life over the long term.

There are larger, harder-to-address global issues. Marine biologists theorize the salmon crisis can be attributed to ocean conditions - linked to global warming - that disrupt marine life cycles. While wild salmon populations in Oregon and Washington also are shrinking, the Central Valley Chinook's distress is causing the greatest concern. A comprehensive review of every factor is necessary. A mechanism that establishes overall decision making authority must be developed and fully empowered.

The Delta is declining dangerously because it's being redirected, stressed, misused and neglected. There is no common agreement on how to fix it. The declining fish populations, especially among Chinook salmon, are very disturbing signs. How many more negative indicators are needed?

                                                                        #

Thanks to you all for standing in for the fish! The great anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

John Beuttler
Conservation Director
California Sportfishing Alliance
1360 Neilson Street Berkeley, CA 94702-1116