Ojai Valley News Blog

After failing to allow rescue of 54 stranded fish, NMFS
working with Casitas, others to prevent further die-offs

By Daryl Kelley
Following a summer in which at least 54 steelhead trout died in dry pools in the upper Ventura River, federal officials who failed to launch a rescue effort are now devising a strategy that could save the endangered fish when they face death.

In a meeting last week, the National Marine Fisheries Service asked representatives from about a dozen environmental groups and local agencies in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties to provide their best information so teams to save the fish may be deployed as streams dry up next summer.

“Our goal is for (the rescue plan) to be ready as soon as possible after the first of the year,” said Chris Yates, who oversees the southern steelhead program from a National Marine Fisheries office in Long Beach.

“We’re looking at when and where and how to rescue the fish. There’s a sense of urgency on everyone’s part.”

The local advisory teams, expert on the nature of their watersheds, will monitor and identify potential rescue situations, Yates said. Then they’ll assist federal and state fish agencies in moving the fish to spots where they have the best chance to survive and prosper, he said.

But there’s much to learn about whether the fish rescues are of long-term benefit, or whether they are simply Band-Aids that make people feel better but really have no impact on the survival of the species, he said.

“We need to learn whether these (rescued) fish are surviving,” he said. “Are we putting them in places that harm other fish? There’s a suite of things we need to work out. There are a lot of moving parts.”

Even with the new rescue schemes in place, Yates said he was not yet sure whether they would have prompted a rescue of the 54 steelhead that died last July in dry pools in the upper Ventura River near the Robles fish ladder, which was ordered built by the U.S. government to help save the fish from extinction.

With very few resources, public agencies can’t spend too much time rescuing fish in streams that have naturally dried up for hundreds or thousands of years, he said. His agency must consider the cause of the drying, and if that cause is man-made, try to lessen man’s impact on the natural process.

“We do feel there are times and places and reasons when fish should be rescued,” Yates said after the 54 fish died last summer. “However, we have to balance that. In Southern California, it’s very difficult to distinguish between what is natural or the result of human activities.”

He has just three or four employees focusing on steelhead issues for a region stretching from San Luis Obispo County to the Mexican border, Yates said.

“The bottom line is I am not inclined to build a broad, widespread fish rescue team,” Yates said then.

But this week, Yates said he had called last week’s meeting with watershed experts in Santa Barbara to prepare for rescues when they are justified.

Over the next few months, local experts have now pledged to provide federal and state fish agencies with detailed information about where steelhead are regularly trapped as pools dry up in the late spring and summer.

Those local experts, including marine biologists who are intimately familiar with the Ventura River watershed, will also recommend to the federal fisheries service and the state Department of Fish and Game the best places to relocate the fish.

Generally, those biologists stressed last week that the fish ought to be placed in year-round pools or streams in the direction of their migration, Yates said.

That would mean that the juvenile smolts that are migrating to the ocean should be placed in permanent streams near the mouth of the Ventura River, while the adult steelhead that are migrating to the upper river to spawn should be placed there.

Still, the rescues and final decisions on relocation would be made by the fish agencies permitted under federal law to handle the steelhead, Yates stressed. Under the federal Endangered Species Act, only agencies with permits may handle the fish. The southern steelhead was designated an endangered species in 1997 after the number of adults dwindled from tens of thousands to a few hundred, authorities say.

Among the biologists who will assist in rescue planning is Scott Lewis, a consultant for the Casitas Municipal Water District, said Casitas Director Russ Baggerly, who will work on the local advisory team for the Ventura River watershed.

“It was a very dynamic meeting,” Baggerly said of last week’s brainstorming session. “They were very receptive, and I think good things are going to come out of this. They’re going to give us a check list of data they need to have so they can make a decision on what to do before it is to late. Everybody wants to save the fish.”

What to do about steelhead trout as they become trapped in drying pools  has been an issue for years.

Last year, the federal fisheries service gave Casitas temporary approval to collect several steelhead trout trapped in drying water holes and move them toward the ocean, where the river has water year-round. It is illegal to move the endangered fish without a permit, and violators are subject to fine.

National Marine Fisheries then promised to develop a protocol for rescuing the trout. But as summer arrived this year, that plan still had not received final approval.

Now, that protocol seems to be moving forward.

Paul Jenkin, coordinator of the Matilija Coalition, which is attempting to restore the watershed to its natural state, attended the meeting last week. And he said he was encouraged, but will have to wait and see how the federal effort works out.

Jenkin argued last summer that allowing the 54 steelhead to die was not acceptable. Rescues should take place because fish are being trapped by man-made conditions, including over-pumping of groundwater along the Ventura River, he said.

But he said this week that the meeting was a positive step.

“Hopefully, it’s a good first step,” he said.

And he noted that the extent of steelhead die-off is often underestimated. For example, he said that about 140 steelhead had been detected near the Robles fish ladder before the 54 were found dead. Twelve had been relocated, but the rest probably swam downstream and ended up in other isolated and drying pools.

“My point is that if you see 140 fish in pools that are drying up, you should do something in May or June, before you reach a critical point,” Jenkin said. “Hopefully, this will evolve into something that works. I don’t want to see any more fish drying up this year.”

Lewis, the Casitas consultant, said last summer that the count of juvenile steelhead was way up in the Ventura River, and that perhaps 1,000 lived there.

Over one 100-yard stretch where Casitas counts juvenile steelhead, Lewis said his team saw 130 during a one-day session this year, compared with 13 last year.

Lewis said he can tell young steelhead trout from their rainbow cousins, which are not endangered, because the young smolting steelhead turns silvery in color and becomes skinny as it heads toward the ocean. And adult steelhead are generally larger than rainbows.