Beyond the brink of extinction – For the 6th year in a row, CDFW survey finds ZERO Delta Smelt
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| DWR Environmental Scientist Trishelle Temple releases Delta smelt into a cage as part of an experimental soft release. The fish acclimate in the cage for 48 hours before being released into the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel. (Photo courtesy of DWR.) | |
Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and thread fin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less precipitous decline. The graphs in this CDFW memo graphically illustrate how dramatic the declines in fish populations have been over the years: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/…
Experimental hatchery Delta smelt program continues
Since 2022, the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP), a consortium of nine member agencies, including three State departments and six Federal agencies, has experimentally reintroduced thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt from the UC Davis captive breeding facility in Byron back into the estuary, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory work to prepare Delta smelt for experimental release in December 2021. (Photo by Tien-Chieh Hung/UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory)
“The Delta Smelt Experimental Release Study involves releasing 90,000 laboratory-raised fish into the Delta this season to determine which methods prove the most effective at production, tagging, transport and release of the fish into the wild. Learning which plan works best could someday help to supplement the population with a goal of aiding in the recovery of the species,” the CDFW wrote in their California Outdoors Q&A: wildlife.ca.gov/…
“Recently 32 metal 20-gallon containers were filled with 200 Delta smelt and emptied directly into the Sacramento River into a specially designed submerged cage, the agency stated. The cage provided a safe environment while the fish adjusted to the river temperature and their new surroundings before they were fully released a few hours later into the river,” the agency reported.
Through Delta smelt monitoring surveys that are conducted routinely each year, CDFW said it can learn about their health and survivability.
“Last year was the first time we were able to uniquely mark fish from different experimental release events and get decent numbers of adult fish recaptured in our monitoring surveys,” said CDFW Environmental Program Manager Dr. James Hobbs. “We’re releasing adult fish just before the spawning season, and we’re hoping these fish will meet up and produce the next generations.”
“Unfortunately, the same factors responsible for the near disappearance of the fish are still present including a less than reliable flow of freshwater, low food productivity, loss of wetland habitats, predation by non-native species and other reasons. But scientists say the experiment is showing some positive results with survival and recovery of released adults,” CDFW concluded.
However, if the experiment is showing “showing some positive results” as CDFW claims, why were no Delta smelt, hatchery or wild, found in the FMWT survey at their extensive monitoring stations throughout the estuary in 2023? And why were only 5 smelt collected in the Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) survey of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2023?
Entire Delta ecosystem is collapsing
The near-extinction of Delta Smelt in the wild and the collapse of striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt,
(Photo CC by USGS Pacific Northwest)Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.
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