13 million, 450 thousand Stripers "Salvaged"

[OceanSunfish]

In the recently released report - "Collateral Damage" by The Bay Institute, in one year alone, between the years 1993 and 2011, as many as 13,451,203 striped bass were "salvaged" or entrained at the pumps.

The annual average of entrained striped bass is 1,773, 079.

Truck loads and truck loads of salvaged fish dumped without a process of acclimation or proper handling for survival. (Scoop, truck, and dump) Not even a 48 hour acclimation period for I surmise that this would invoke some act by NOAA similar to the one that stopped Tom Hampson's net rearing project dead in its tracks.

Does our CA DF&G have any studies to determine if the current salvage operation is successful? Since it involves striped bass, I doubt it very much since they bow down to politics that favor the enhancement of an elite few.

IMO, I think it's safe to say that if even half of those 13 million fish survived we would notice it.......

Go to the Conservation thread for link to report and add your comments.

I believe this report may have been instigated by the report that Dan Bacher did last year regarding the record amounts of entrained fish by enormous water diversion during a very wet winter and spring of 2011.

[Marty Gingras]

In the recently released report - "Collateral Damage" by The Bay Institute, in one year alone, between the years 1993 and 2011, as many as 13,451,203 striped bass were "salvaged" or entrained at the pumps.

The annual average of entrained striped bass is 1,773, 079.

Truck loads and truck loads of salvaged fish dumped without a process of acclimation or proper handling for survival. (Scoop, truck, and dump) Not even a 48 hour acclimation period for I surmise that this would invoke some act by NOAA similar to the one that stopped Tom Hampson's net rearing project dead in its tracks.

Does our CA DF&G have any studies to determine if the current salvage operation is successful? Since it involves striped bass, I doubt it very much since they bow down to politics that favor the enhancement of an elite few.

IMO, I think it's safe to say that if even half of those 13 million fish survived we would notice it.......

Go to the Conservation thread for link to report and add your comments.

I believe this report may have been instigated by the report that Dan Bacher did last year regarding the record amounts of entrained fish by enormous water diversion during a very wet winter and spring of 2011.

Hi all,

The salvage process is designed for little fish and the vast preponderance of salvaged fish are little (e.g., 1-3 inches long).

Entrainment is not good for fish but salvage is a good thing for entrained fish. Fish that are entrained but not salvaged either go to the pumps (and die or get into the aqueducts) or die while entrained.

Because salvage of entrained fish is a good thing, salvage, improvement of salvage processes --- including where they are released back into the delta, and consideration of salvage impacts is required under CESA and FESA by the 'fish agencies'. Various permits and such require pumping to be reduced when salvage of listed fish reaches a threshold.

There is little data on survival of salvaged fish after release, because getting that data would be exceptionally difficult. We haven't written it up (probably will soon), but it seems we have some correlation-type information suggesting that splittail released back into the delta after salvage survive in large numbers.

We have for decades made reports about salvage:

ftp://ftp.delta.dfg.ca.gov/salvage/Annual%20Salvage%20Reports/

We have for several years operated a web site that allows the public to see and use the salvage data:

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/delta/apps/salvage/Default.aspx

Thanks

Marty Gingras
BDR-IEP Program Manager
California Department of Fish and Game
Bay Delta Region
4001 North Wilson Way
Stockton, California 95205

Phone (209) 948-3702
FAX (209) 946-6355
email mgingras@dfg.ca.gov

[bart]

Marty.Why don't you set up a tour of Skinner For Keines and Blantons board so they can see what goes on there?I have taken serval CSBA tours through the fish facility beforeand was getting ready to ask the director again.