1000's Of Delta Fish Killed During Levee Repair
YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM THE LINK BELOW!!! There was our WINTER RUN of FISH!!!! floating dead in the water....
http://cbs13.com/local/delta.levee.dead.2.594116.html
"striped bass, salmon, carp, bluegill and other game fish" killed.
I found out this was near Courtland, CA. Check out where that is on Google Maps if you don't know. It's right along the fish(salmon, steelhead, striped bass) highway to the Sacramento Watershed. Wouldn't they have known better?
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1000's Of Delta Fish Killed During Levee Repair
SACRAMENTO (AP) ― State and federal officials on Monday said they were investigating the death of thousands of game fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after a federal agency drained the water around a protected island during a levee repair.
Masses of fish could be seen floating in shallow water on Prospect Island, a 1,253-acre plot next to Sacramento's Deep Water Ship Channel that is administered by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
The bureau on Monday halted drainage of the remaining water behind the levee and started removing the fish carcasses, spokesman Jeff McCracken said. He said the agency would begin adding oxygen to the water in hopes of saving some of the remaining fish.
"When we realized how many fish were there, we quit pumping," he said. "By then, we certainly, apparently, had passed the point of causing some fish loss."
The bureau had no estimate on the number of fish killed. Bob McDarif, owner of Cliff's Marina near the delta town of Freeport, estimated the number in the tens of thousands.
"It's like a disaster out there," he said.
The California Department of Fish and Game launched its own investigation Monday, focusing on how and why the fish died.
Although the fish deaths were on federal land, the striped bass, salmon, carp, bluegill and other game fish are considered public trust assets for the state. The results will be sent to state Attorney General Jerry Brown.
The levee under repair is around Prospect Island, which sits along the shipping channel about 20 miles southwest of Sacramento. The channel is the same stretch of water that served as a conduit for a pair of humpback whales that made an unlikely journey inland from San Francisco Bay last spring.
In a project that began in early October, the Bureau of Reclamation plugged two breaks in the 15-foot-high levee and repaired about 600 additional feet. The breaches occurred in January 2006.
Pumping the remaining water from behind the levee was the final step.
McCracken said the bureau received clearance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to proceed with the repairs. Fisheries officials determined heavy vegetation would make it too hard to salvage the fish, but the contractor was advised to start pumping during the lowest tide of the month, which he did, McCracken said.
"To put nets or do things, they told us it wasn't plausible," he said. "We did instruct the contractor ... to move as many fish out of the way as possible."
The Fish and Wildlife Service studied the potential effects of the drainage project on the delta smelt, which is protected under the California Endangered Species Act. That study showed the levee repair was likely to have no effect on the fish.
State Fish and Game officials said they were notified about the die-off last Wednesday and were not involved in the levee project.
"We wish they would've consulted with us beforehand," department spokesman Steve Martarano said. "We could have maybe given them some ideas on things to do."
That could have included using sport fishing groups to help reduce the fish population before the water was drained or immediately rescue some fish. It also could have meant employing special water pumps that are less harmful to fish, he said.
McDarif, the marina operator, was first to sound the alarm about the stranded fish and said he has been frustrated by the slow response.
He recruited more than 100 volunteers to try to move the dying fish to the river, but he said his efforts were thwarted by federal officials.
"If I saw some fish dying now, I would go and take them out and move them to the river," he said. "The thing is, there's all these politics, and there's no time for politics."
The Bureau of Reclamation bought the island about 12 years ago as part of a planned Army Corps of Engineers program to restore fisheries and wildlife in the delta. Funding stalled, however, and the area was never developed.
The bureau had planned to sell the property this winter. (Who are they going to sell this valuable fish and wildlife habitat to?)
Furthermore from
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/200...6/18463695.php
Prospect Island Update: Dead Fish Removal Begins Today
by Dan Bacher
Bureau of Reclamation and DFG biologists on Sunday, November 25 checked Prospect Island, where thousands of fish are dead or dying, and the DFG gave the approval to remove the fish that have died, according to Jeff McCracken, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman.
The majority of fish appear to be striped bass, but salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, bluegill, crappie, Sacramento pike minnows and other species have also died. Endangered delta smelt could also be the victims of the fish kill.
“We've mobilized a crew and expect to begin this first thing this morning,” said McCracken on November 26. “The DFG believes removing the fish will ‘enhance’ water quality and allow for the remaining live fish to survive. We will also pump oxygen into the pools where there are remaining fish.”
McCracken said that Bureau of Reclamation officials, the DFG manager and biologists would meet today to determine the best way to deal with the remaining fish on the island. DD-M Crane and Rigging Company of Alameda, the same company that did the repairs to the levee, will be removing the dead fish and installing aerators in the ponds, amounting to 800 acre feet of water, that remain on the island.
“Apparently there are natural pools there that always had native fish,” said McCracken. “DFG will let us know what the next step needs to be. We believe that the water remaining on the island is sufficient to keep the remaining fish alive once the dead fish are removed.”
After hearing about Bureau of Reclamation plans to remove the fish and oxygenate the water, Bob McDaris, who brought the fish kill to the media and public’s attention after discovering the thousands of dead and dying fish on Prospect Island last Tuesday, was encouraged that something was finally being done about the matter.
“I’m glad that they are removing the dead fish and are oxygenating the water,” said McDaris, owner of Cliff’s Marina in Freeport. “I still would like to go with a group of volunteers and rescue the remaining fish and put them into Miner Slough.”
He noted that one option would be to put fish back into the slough by means of a 1-foot diameter irrigation pipe. All McDaris and his volunteers need is the authority and means of transporting these fish across a muddy wallow to be released back into the slough.
According to McDaris, “I talked to Mary Mason, DFG warden, this morning. She told me ‘I’m not going to tell you that you can’t do the rescue.’”
McDaris, (916) 769-8047, is on standby right now with 75 volunteers to go out and rescue any fish that are still alive. He is also willing to donate money to hire a helicopter to transport the last remaining fish.
“All I want to do is save the fish,” emphasized McDaris.
Meanwhile, the DFG is opening a criminal investigation into the fish kill. “We’ve taken photographs of the dead and dying fish at Prospect Island and the law enforcement branch of the DFG is now doing a criminal investigation of the matter,” said Steve Martarano, DFG public information officer. “We plan to find out if anything occurred at the island that could be considered a crime. If we determined that a crime had been committed, we would then go to the District Attorney to press charges.”
He also said the Department was going to see it they could rescue some of the fish off the island. “We’re looking at all options,” he stated.
and at
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/200...3/18463168.php
Stunning Television Footage of Huge Delta Fish Kill/Prospect Island Update
by Dan Bacher
Friday Nov 23rd, 2007 6:28 PM
View the carnage of the huge fish kill at Prospect Island on the CBS13 website. There are already thousands and thousands of dead fish... and this is just the beginning of the fish kill.
http://cbs13.com/local/delta.levee.dead.2.594116.html
Judging by the number of fish shown in this footage shot from a helicopter by Channel 13 TV in Sacramento, this fishery disaster could end up being comparable to or worse than the Klamath Fish Kill of 2002. The majority of visible fish are striped bass, but salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass and carp are also dead or dying. There is a very real possibility that delta smelt, a fish on the verge of extinction that is supposedly "protected" by the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, will be among the victims of this fish kill that is occuring while you read this.
Bob McDaris, Owner of Cliff's Marina, (916) 769-8047, one of the first to bring this situation to light, is on standby right now with 75 volunteers to go out and rescue any fish that are still alive. All he needs is the authority and means of transporting these fish across a muddy wallow to be released back into the river/slough system. He is also willing to donate money to hire a helicopter to transport the last remaining fish.
"We did comprehensive sampling of the fish on the island before the levee was closed," according to Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "We found no smelt or salmon. It was due to the lack of threat to the threatened species that the federal fishery agencies concluded we could seal the levee at low tide. And a fish salvage for the entire 1,200 plus acre island was problematic due to the vegetation on the island which the FWS and NMFS concluded fish salvage couldn't be accommodated."
It looks like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service made a tragic miscalculation of the amount of fish that would be killed by repairing the levee on Prospect Island and draining it. Unfortunately, an area like Prospect Island, with abundant vegetation, cover and forage, is ideal habitat for an array of Delta fish species. Draining an area like this is very destructive, without finding a way to do a fish rescue, because the flooded island is an area where fish from throughout the Delta system congregate.
Something needs to be done about this intolerable situation before more fish needlessly die on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. I urge people concerned about the stranding of thousands of fish on Prospect Island to call or write to the following officials and urge the federal and state governments to do something about saving the fish:
Ron Milligan, Operations Manager
Central Valley Operations Office
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
3310 El Camino Avenue, Suite 300
Sacramento CA 95821
916-979-2180
fax: 916-979-2494
Richard B. Rogers, President
California Fish and Game Commission
1416 Ninth Street
Sacramento CA 95814
916-653-4899
email: fgc [at] fgc.ca.gov
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-445-2841
You can call also call the Bureau of Reclamation, Public Affairs Office, 916-978-5100.
Am I missing something or were you referring to the other threads that had so much emotionalism in them. 
Originally Posted by Tristan
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