Another Delta species, the longfin smelt, needs to be protected under CESA

DFG seeking public input on petition to list longfin smelt

by Dan Bacher

As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state water contractors continue to campaign for new dams and the peripheral canal, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) announced on June 20 that it is seeking public input regarding a petition to list longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys) under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).

The longfin smelt is yet another victim of years of abysmal water management by the state and federal governments, joining delta smelt, winter run chinook, spring run chinook, Central Valley fall run chinook, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other species on the government-engineered race to extinction.

The California Fish and Game Commission is currently considering the petition to list the fish as "threatened" or "endangered" under CESA. The Bay Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed the petition on Aug. 14, 2007 after the longfin smelt, along with its cousin, the delta smelt, declined to record levels after record levels of water were exported out of the California Delta by the Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations.

By operation of law, longfin smelt became a “candidate species” under the CESA when the Commission found that the petition contained sufficient information to warrant further consideration, according to a news release from the DFG.

"Pursuant to the provisions of Section 2074.6 of the Fish and Game Code, DFG must complete a status review of the species and provide a written report to the commission that recommends - based upon the best scientific information available - whether listing the longfin smelt as threatened or endangered under CESA is warranted," the DFG stated. "DFG plans to submit its report to the commission in January 2009 and seeks information from the public to help formulate its recommendation."

The longfin smelt is a small native fish that migrates from salty water to spawn in fresh water. In California the fish are found mostly in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay.

"Their abundance has declined substantially since systematic monitoring began in 1959 and has been at record-low levels since 2000," said Marty Gingras, DFG supervising biologist.

The longfin smelt has declined as part of the Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) on the California Delta. Since 2005, populations of four open water fish - delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - have declined to record levels.

The Pelagic Organism Decline team, a group of federal and state scientists, has been studying the decline and attempting to develop solutions to the unprecedented collapse of the California Delta food chain. The number one reason behind the collapse is record exports of water to subsidized agribusiness and southern California in recent years, followed by toxics and invasive species.

Some of the largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increased to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

More recently, scientists have pointed to the release of ammonia from the City of Sacramento sewage plant as another potential factor in the sudden decline of the POD species.

In addition, water agencies have refused to pay for state-of-the-art fish screens that were required in the 2000 CALFED Record of Decision as mitigation for exporting water. These fish screens have killed millions of chinook salmon, striped bass, delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and other species over the past 20 years.

For example, the federal pumps that export water from the California Delta entrained (trapped) over 370,000 threadfin shad in one week in November 2007!

Central Valley fall chinook salmon populations have also collapsed, prompting the closure of recreational and commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coast for the first time in history. All Central Valley rivers, with the exception of a November 1 to December 31 season on a small stretch of the Sacramento, are closed to fishing after June 30.

While the state and federal governments continue to point to "ocean conditions as the likely culprit for the collapse, commercial fishing groups, recreational angling organizations, Indian Tribes and environmentalists point to the key role that freshwater factors, led by massive increases in exports, have played in the collapse.

I urge people to comment and support listing of the longfin smelt under CESA in order to provide increased protection for this imperiled fish. Comments from interested and affected parties, including members of the public and local agencies, are requested by Aug. 1, 2008. Please send data and comments related to the petitioned action and/or the status of longfin smelt toFG Supervising Biologist Marty Gingras, Department of Fish and Game. Re: Longfin Smelt Petition, 4001 North Wilson Way, Stockton, CA 95205

You can also comment via e-mail to mgingras [at] dfg.ca.gov with “Re: Longfin Smelt Petition” in the subject line. Send faxes to (209) 946-6355, Attention: Marty Gingras, Re: Longfin Smelt Petition. For more information, call Gingras at (209) 948-3702.

In a parallel development, a petition by The Bay Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Natural Resources Defense Council for federal protection of the San Francisco Bay-Delta longfin smelt population is moving forward.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May made a positive initial finding on a petition to list the San Francisco Bay population of the longfin smelt under the federal Endangered Species Act. This is the first step toward a formal listing for the longfin, a native species that has dropped to record low numbers in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and is nearing extinction in other northern California estuaries.

“Unfortunately, longfin smelt is just the latest victim of federal and state mismanagement of California’s largest and most important estuary,” said Dr. Tina Swanson, senior scientist with the Bay Institute. “But maybe this decision, following close on the heels of the collapse of the state’s salmon fishery and court-ordered changes in water export operations to protect Delta smelt, will serve as a reality check for those who still think our rivers and the Delta can supply ever-increasing amounts of water without devastating environmental and economic consequences.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service must now conduct a status review of this population and make a final listing determination, which is legally due in August of 2008.

Meanwhile, Arnold Schwarzenegger, defying all logic in the face of the collapse of longfin smelt, delta smelt, Central Valley chinook salmon and other fish populations, continues to push for more dams and the building of a peripheral canal. While the Governor and the state water contractors are pushing for the capacity to export MORE water out of the Delta, we need to instead drastically reduce water exports by the increased practice of water conservation by all users, particularly by corporate agribusiness.