The Delta’s ecological crisis already has had a major effect on water deliveries into a system that irrigates 2 million acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley and is relied upon by two of every three Californians for at least some of their water. The only bright spot in the survey was a slight increase in the threadfin shad population. “We had a very dry year, which is usually bad for fish, but it was really bad.” He echoed a growing sense of pessimism about the health of the Delta, the bottom of a watershed that drains about 40 percent of California and is arguably the state’s most important source of water. “We need to look at those,” said Bruce Herbold, a fisheries biologist at the U.S. The significance of those measures is unclear. The latest survey showed extremely low numbers for two additional fish species, Sacramento splittail and American shad. “It’s looking pretty bleak,” said Randall Baxter, a senior fisheries biologist at the California Department of Fish and Game. And the December portion of the survey turned up just two fish - the fewest collected in any single month since the survey began in 1967.īiologists said that last year’s dry weather was not enough to explain the severe declines and noted fresh evidence that pollution and a toxic algae may have struck severe blows. The young-of-the-year striped bass numbers dropped sharply last year to their third-lowest level ever. Striped bass, a popular sportfish, also fell into deeper trouble. Longfin smelt range from the Delta north to Alaska, but in 2007 their numbers here plunged far below previous record lows.
The new numbers also greatly increase the possibility that another fish might disappear from the region. The results of a key survey, made available Wednesday, offer no hope of relief anytime soon for increasing tension between the Delta environment and state water supplies, worrying biologists that one fish, Delta smelt, could be nearing extinction. A severe ecological decline in the Delta worsened substantially in 2007 despite major efforts to stop it, including an unprecedented nine-day shutdown of state water deliveries in June.
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