<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpd05829b5yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> <div><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/2/2238619/-CA-salmon-Delta-fish-populations-are-in-worst-ever-crisis-as-pumps-keep-exporting-water-to-Big-Ag" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/2/2238619/-CA-salmon-Delta-fish-populations-are-in-worst-ever-crisis-as-pumps-keep-exporting-water-to-Big-Ag&source=gmail&ust=1715286660418000&usg=AOvVaw2u-m-iRKgFr1mSn45T0dDk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/2/2238619/-CA-salmon-Delta-fish-populations-are-in-worst-ever-crisis-as-pumps-keep-exporting-water-to-Big-Ag</a></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font size="4">CA salmon, Delta fish populations are in worst-ever crisis as pumps keep exporting water to Big Ag</font><br></p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">by Dan Bacher</p><p style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">Central
Valley salmon and Delta fish populations are in their worst-ever crisis
ever as California Governor Newsom forges ahead with the Delta Tunnel
and Sites Reservoir projects and the Big Ag voluntary agreements while
fish populations get closer and closer to extinction.<br></p><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><p>California
salmon fishing was closed in 2023 and will be closed this year also.
The 2024 stock abundance forecast for Sacramento River Fall Chinook,
often the most abundant stock in the ocean fishery, is only 213,600
adults. The return to Coleman Fish Hatchery was an absolute
disaster. Meanwhile, abundance of Klamath River Fall Chinook is forecast
at 180,700 adults. </p><p>Endangered Sacramento River spring and
winter-run Chinook also continue their march towards extinction. The
spawning escapement of Sacramento River Spring Chinooks (SRSC) in 2023
totaled 1,479 fish (jacks and adults), with an estimated return of 106
to upper Sacramento River tributaries and the remaining 1,391 fish
returning to the Feather River Hatchery: <a href="https://www.pcouncil.org/salmon-management-documents/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pcouncil.org/salmon-management-documents/&source=gmail&ust=1715286660418000&usg=AOvVaw1U7cD09oLDxwUiuVSW7fkF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.pcouncil.org/...</a></p><p>The
return to Butte Creek of just 100 fish was the lowest ever. In 2021, an
estimated 19,773 out of the more than 21,580 fish total that returned
to spawn in the Butte County stream perished before spawning.</p><p>Nor
did the winter run, listed under the state and federal Endangered
Species Act, do well. Spawner escapement of endangered Sacramento River
Winter Chinook (SRWC) in 2023 was estimated to be 2,447 adults and 54
jacks, according to PFMC data. </p><p>A group of us, including the late
conservationist and Fish Sniffer magazine publisher Hal Bonslett,
successfully pushed the state and federal governments to list the winter
run under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts starting in
1990-91 because we were so alarmed that the fish population had crashed
to 2,000 fish. </p><p>Then in 1992 the run declined to less than 200
fish. Even after Shasta Dam was built, the winter run escapement to the
Sacramento River was 117,000 in 1969!</p><p>Now we are back to
approximately the same low number of winter-run Chinooks that spurred us
to push for the listing of the fish as endangered under state and
federal law over 30 years ago. </p><div><p>The State Water Project
(SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) Delta “death pumps” have been the
biggest killers of salmon, steelhead, Sacramento splittail and other
fish species in California for many decades, as I have documented in
hundreds of articles in an array of publications.</p><p>In the latest
episode in this outrageous saga, a coalition of fishing and conservation
groups, including the Golden Gate Salmon Association, San Francisco
Baykeeper and Bay Institute, urged the state and federal water agencies
to “take immediate action” to stop the unauthorized killing of thousands
of Chinook Salmon and Steelhead at the State and Federal water export
pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/3/2233290/-State-and-federal-agencies-must-take-action-to-stop-killing-of-salmon-steelhead-in-Delta-Pumps" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/3/2233290/-State-and-federal-agencies-must-take-action-to-stop-killing-of-salmon-steelhead-in-Delta-Pumps&source=gmail&ust=1715286660418000&usg=AOvVaw1OQnkFwKj0l34QrpQ9P7AK" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.dailykos.com/...</a></p></div><div id="ydp58741396m_1903101050077843928m_-3133475802172053041m_-7709557646381267472m_89110976065092935m_-6111462062406540413m_-34936331792890390gmail-ad_InLine_1"><div><p>Both
winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead are protected
under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). Central Valley
winter-run Chinook Salmon is also protected under the California
Endangered Species Act (CESA).</p><p>The coalition reported that this is
the second time in 2024 the coalition has responded to an increase in
killing of legally protected fish at the pumps of the State Water
Project and the Central Valley Project (Projects or Water Projects).</p><p>While
the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has called for significant
reductions in the Projects’ Delta water pumping, the California’s
Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the federal Bureau of
Reclamation that own and operate the Projects ignored these
recommendations and continued to export water at rates that killed
thousands of imperiled fishes, the groups said.</p><p>“Indeed, over the
past week, DWR and Reclamation further increased pumping – as a result,
significantly increasing take of winter-run Chinook Salmon at the
pumps,” the groups said in a statement. “As a result, the Water Projects
have exceeded the legal limits for killing both Central Valley
Steelhead and winter-run Chinook Salmon established under the ESA by
NMFS.”</p><p>State Water Project pumping accounts for 80% of the water exported from the Delta at this time, according to the groups.</p><p>The annual ESA take limit for winter-run Chinook Salmon is <strong>1,776 fish</strong>. As of March 25, 2024, an estimated <strong>3,030</strong>winter-run
had been killed at the pumps – not counting the much larger number of
fish that likely died after being drawn by pumping into inhospitable
parts of the Delta, the groups said.</p><p>Since December 1, 2023, an estimated <strong>2,919</strong> naturally
spawned Central Valley Steelhead have also been killed by the Water
Projects. The maximum allowable ESA Steelhead take is <strong>1,571</strong> as
a three-year rolling average or 2,760 in any single year. The numbers
show that the Water Projects are in violation of both limits.</p><p>Now
we turn to Delta Smelt. Unfortunately, the mainstream media, for the
most part, either refuses to report on the Delta smelt or report
inaccurately on the Delta Smelt when it does report. This is from an
article in the LA Times in February 2024: “Recent surveys have found
decreasing numbers of Delta smelt in the wild.”</p></div></div></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><p>Are
you kidding? Actually, for the sixth year in a row, ZERO Delta Smelt
were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall
Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
from September through December 2023. </p><p>Once the most abundant species in the entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the point that it has become <strong>functionally extinct in the wild</strong>.
The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator
species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta
ecosystem.</p><p>Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the
survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and threadfin
shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water
Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less
precipitous decline.</p><p>Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall
Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin
smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by <strong>99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%</strong>, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.</p><p><strong>The graphs in the CDFW memo graphically illustrate how dramatic the declines in fish populations have been over the years: <a href="https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId=219831&inline" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId%3D219831%26inline&source=gmail&ust=1715286660418000&usg=AOvVaw2u2-MmkPa1B5rZSF7rAEvg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">nrm.dfg.ca.gov/…</a> </strong></p></div><div class="ydp58741396yj6qo"></div><div class="ydp58741396adL"></div><br></div></div></div></body></html>