Here's the latest on Prospect Island fish rescue, sign up...

[Mike McKenzie]

Here's the latest on who, what, where, when and how..

http://www.rescuethefish.org

On the main page click on Forums....

Mike

[Ed Wahl]

Was looking over the ideas for moving the fish. Seems like dragging jon boats(and one very tough pram)loaded with buckets or coolers is the best option so far. We're gonna need a lot of bodies to pull this off. Please check out the link Mike put up, even if you can't make it out there you help with ideas and suggestions. Everything from netting, transport, and release/revive over the levee. If you've got a boat to transport volunteers to and from the site, which is a few miles away, that'd be great. Ed

[Scott V]

I posted on the rescue site I can bring down my ATV, it has racks on the front and back. All I need to know is when on either Saturday and/or Sunday.

[Mrs.Finsallaround]

This rescue is happening! 8)

TOMORROW, Saturday, December 1st at 8:00 am... All details are on the new website created by Jeff Nash: http://www.rescuethefish.org.

Hope to see you all out there! :D

[Mike McKenzie]

From Jeff Nash at http://www.rescuethefish.org/


November 30th, 2007 -- 12pm

We've been OK'd to head down to the Island starting at 1:00 pm today until 4:30pm or so. This will be basically to get things setup, and to save some fish. The main rescue effort will start tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 8:00am. We'll have a table setup just outside the Gate going onto the island briefing people and having them sign the BOR's liability waiver. I am heading down there now. I will post more details when I get back tonight.

Also here's a little info from an e-mail I got from Dan Bacher...

"McDaris explained that he already had a pipe ready to transport fish through from the island to Miner Slough, so he could begin the rescue this afternoon. The volunteers will transport the fish in ice chests or small kid's swimming pool placed on ATVs and send them through the pipes into the slough. McDaris and volunteers are also ready to install another pipe to put oxygen in the water at the island."

All you "youngin's" with strong backs get out there tomorrow and Sunday...Save those fish! :) :)

Mike

[Mike McKenzie]

The Tally for today's rescue effort was 188 adult stripers up to 12 lbs were returned to Miner slough with only one fish lost..Dang fine work!!

Mike

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

That's fantastic..........

[erhetta]

What an effort. If I were not in my office for my monthly 1st of the month duties, I would be there.

Great job guys!!!

[Mike McKenzie]

1654 stripers saved so far.... More help needed tomorrow Dec. 2nd.

Volunteer Rescue An Overwhelming Success


by Dan Bacher


A force of 42 volunteers rescued 1466 stranded striped bass today from a certain death on Prospect Island, bringing the number of stripers rescued since yesterday afternoon to a total of 1654 fish.


In addition, anglers using nets and buckets transported largemouth bass, bluegill, Sacramento blackfish (a native minnow) and other fish from a seep in the levee where a variety of fish species were concentrated.


Yesterday a dozen volunteers rescued 188 striped bass from Prospect Island and put them into Miner Slough, according to Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport.


While I was there today and yesterday, I didn't see any fish that died when put back into the water. The concern that DFG staffer Terry Foreman voiced about potential fish mortality during a meeting with volunteers, DFG staff and Bureau of Reclamation officials was completely unfounded, as evidenced by the 100 percent success of the rescue operation to date.


"We set up the logistics Friday afternoon and tried different methods of rescuing the fish," said Gary Rios, a retired West Sacramento fire chief and an avid angler. "So we had a system in place for our operation on Saturday."


The volunteers netted the fish and put them into 55 gallon tanks. Rather than using ATVs, which get bogged down in the thick mud, the rescue volunteers used an Arctic Cat to transfer the fish to the base of the levee. Then other volunteers net the fish from the tanks and take and put them through a pipe back into Miner Slough.


McDaris said they will begin their operation around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday, Dec. 2). Waders are needed and people should be in reasonably good shape because walking through the thick mud can be difficult.


"I'm so tired after today," said McDaris. "It was a great effort by anglers and hunters. We have developed a nice system. The older guys are helping on the levee with tasks such as signing up people and putting the fish into the release pipe, while the younger folks are netting the fish on the island and putting them into the tanks."


"I first thought it would be good if we could save 300 to 500 fish," he added. "But we have saved many more than we originally expected."


Rios noted that one reason for the lack of fish mortality was because they put the fish in saline water to prevent them from becoming stressed. "If we found a fish that didn't appear to be doing well, we put into an ice chest with the saline solution and nursed it until it recovered," he stated.


Jeff McCracken, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman, and Mike Chotkowski, Bureau fishery biologist, accompanied and oversaw the volunteers both days. A DFG biologist also assisted in the rescue effort on Saturday.


Among those who assisted in the fish recovery effort on Saturday were licensed captains Jim Cox of Touch of Grey Sportfishing and J.D. Richie of J.D. Richie Sportfishing.


"As a sportfishing captain who takes fish out of the water during the course of the year, I thought it was good to come out and put fish back into the water," Cox quipped.


Cox is the president of the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), an organization that is active in the battle by recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmentalists and Indian Tribes to save the California Delta from plans by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to build the peripheral canal, construct more dams and export more northern California water to southern California. Other CSBA volunteers also assisted in the rescue.


Members of the Granite Bay Flycasters, Full Speed Fishing, California Waterfowl Association and other clubs and conservation organizations also participated in the effort.


The group is looking for anybody who has access to an Argo, an amphibious vehicle that would make the rescue operation quicker and more efficient. McDaris noted that the rescue effort wouldn't have been possible without the support of Tim Page of Elk Grove, who loaned his Arctic Cat.


Volunteers are needed for tomorrow - bring your waders! Jerry Nash, has set up a website, www.rescuethefish.org, with directions to the site and the latest information.


Meanwhile, the state and federal governments are conducting investigations into the fish kill - and why federal fishery agencies and the DFG signed off on the levee repair that led to the kill. Tens of thousands of fish of a variety of species perished after the fish became stranded on the island. It was only after Bob Simms, KFBK Radio Outdoor Show host, and McNaris alerted the DFG and Bureau of Reclamation of the fish kill that the federal and state agencies began investigating this environmental disaster.


Assemblymember Lois Wolk, chair of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, plans to hold a hearing on Thursday, December 6 to investigate the fish kill on Prospect Island. Diane Colburn, committee staffer, said a press release with full details will go out on Monday, December 3.


The Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) is planning to file a Freedom of Information Act request on documents pertaining to the Prospect Island fish kill. "We would like to see paper and electronic interagency discussions about the BOR's project between BOR and US Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service," said Jim Martin, RFA West Coast Regional Director on December 1.


"The following excerpt shows that the feds knew there were endangered winter run chinook and delta smelt in the area," said Martin. "They spent $5 million on restoring the area ten years ago."
http://www.coastalamerica.gov/text/regions/sw/prospect.html


Jim Crenshaw, president of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, brought up a pressing question that needs to be addressed in any investigation. "Has anybody asked if or how the Bureau is going to mitigate for the fish losses?" he asked.


For more information about the fish rescue, call Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport, cell 916-769-8047 or office 916-665-1611. You can go to www.rescuethefish.org and www.fishsniffer.com for updates on this rescue effort and the fish kill.

[Blueracer]

Ok, I just started reading about all this.

Could somone please inform me how all these fish died in the process of trying to fix the levee? :?:

Thank You

[Scott V]

Ok, I just started reading about all this.

Could somone please inform me how all these fish died in the process of trying to fix the levee? :?:

Thank You

In order to fix the levee they had to pump out the water. So with not enough water to support the fish, they literaly died from lack of oxygen. That is how I see it. All I know is I still have scars all over my thumbs from lipping alot of stripers to get tehm out of a bad situation, and I hope my scars never go away, they are scars of victory. Big striper bite hard when they do not want to be handled my the lip. :)

[Mrs.Finsallaround]

For those following this topic, STAY TUNED! There will be another fish rescue planned later this month... So, keep your nets and Artic Cats ready! 8)

[Mrs.Finsallaround]

Posted by Dan Bacher on 2007-12-11 17:13:33

:cry: Today's Prospect Island Survey Yields No Live Fish

by Dan Bacher

Bob McDaris, the marina owner who coordinated the recent fish rescue at Prospect Island in the California Delta, didn't observe any remaining live fish in the area where volunteers saved thousands of striped bass, bluegill, black bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail and threadfin shad from November 30 through December 2.

John Soto, a local hay farmer, and McDaris returned to the island today in an airboat with Spencer Larson, DFG biologist. The rescue was suspended on December 2 after the water level became too high for volunteers to continue safely rescuing the thousands of striped bass and other fish stranded on the island.

"We didn't see one fish, although I did see one swirl," said McDaris. "We saw thousands of dead carp, many weighing around 20 to 25 pounds."

McDaris said he was depressed about today's results until he contacted Mike Chotkowski, Bureau of Reclamation biologist, who suggested that the fish that were holding in this area may have moved down to the south end of the island. The Bureau installed an aerator near the pump on the south end to improve the water quality.

Meanwhile, McDaris and Bureau and DFG biologists are planning to electro-shock the island's south end where deeper water, 4 to 6 feet deep, is located. If substantial numbers of fish are located, McDaris will organize another fish rescue.

The Prospect Island fish kill, one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in California history, occurred after a contractor for the Bureau of Reclamation pumped out the water from the island as it repaired a levee. McDaris and Soto discovered tens of thousands of dead and dying fish on the island when scouting the island for ducks on November 19.

The Prospect Island Fish Kill was the subject of a hearing by Lois Wolk, chair of the Assembly Committee on Parks and Wildlife, last Thursday. Wolk blasted the state and federal agencies for their lack of coordination and late response to the fish die off. Based on the testimony she heard from the agency and fishery group representatives on Thursday, Wolk said that a single Delta oversight panel needs to be formed to stop fish kills like this one from happening in the future.

The Department of Fish and Game is doing a criminal investigation of the fishery disaster. Jim Martin, West Coast Regional Director of the Recreational Fishing alliance, has also made a Freedom of Information Acti request of the Bureau to release its correspondence and emails regarding the the events that led to theh fish kill.

For more information about whether another fish rescue is feasible, call Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport, cell 916-769-8047 or office 916-665-1611. You can go to http://www.fishsniffer.com and http://www.rescuethefish.org for regular updates.


:( Hopefully, they went south....