Posted by Dave Hurley
on 2/17/2008, 8:38 pm
76.20.97.22
By Alex Breitler
Record Staff Writer
February 17, 2008 6:00 AM
THE DELTA - For 129 years, they've shared the Delta, swimming the same sloughs and even eating the same food.
Can it be that the striped bass has been chowing down on its neighbor, the diminutive Delta smelt, the whole time?
So claims a coalition of farmers, which filed suit last week against the state of California for allowing and encouraging non-native striped bass to coexist with - and eat - native species like smelt.
TO LEARN MORE
For information about the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a group of south San Joaquin Valley landowners, visit www.sustainabledelta.com.
For information about Restore the Delta, a Stockton-based group that opposes increased water exports, visit www.restorethedelta.org.
The south San Joaquin Valley landowners care because the well-being of the smelt has a lot to do with how much water they get from the export pumps near Tracy.
About eight months ago, they formed a group called the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, and it has filed suit in federal court in Sacramento.
But the lawsuit appears to contradict what some experts say about the biology of the Delta and the relationship between the two fish species.
"All the studies that have been done on striped bass feeding habits show that they virtually never take Delta smelt," said Peter Moyle, a University of California, Davis, professor and a leading expert on the state's native fishes.
And that's supported, he said, by studies in which striped bass have been cut open and their stomach contents examined.
Although they were introduced into California waterways in the late 19th century, experts today consider striped bass a beneficial species in the Delta. Although it's a sport fish and much larger than the smelt, it thrives under the same conditions, and the two species have declined in the past three decades.
The farmers' coalition admits the striped bass is not the sole cause of the smelt's decline, but neither are the export pumps, said Michael Boccadoro, a spokesman for the coalition.
The group says there are a range of reasons. For example, it has also threatened to sue two power plants in Pittsburgh and Antioch, claiming that their water intake systems kill fish.
"The reality is a convergence of all these factors," Boccadoro said. "Everybody's going to have to contribute" to a solution that will lead to a sustainable Delta.
The latest lawsuit also illustrates how difficult it has become to tell who is who in the Delta wars.
The various interests groups have adopted similar names: Coalition for a Sustainable Delta sounds like it would have much the same cause as Restore the Delta, a Stockton-based group that calls for reducing water exports.
Indeed, at least one media report from last week mistakenly said that environmentalists had filed the legal action.
Boccadoro said that the coalition's name is perfectly appropriate; the landowners are seeking solutions to make the Delta sustainable.
Jay Sorensen, a longtime striped bass fisherman in Stockton, calls it spin.
"That's why you have all these organizations that are being formed, because of the political rhetoric that's going on now for fish and wildlife in this state," he said.
The state Fish and Game Department once stocked striped bass in the Delta but suspended that practice because of concerns that the striped bass might eat smelt as well as baby salmon.
The lawsuit claims striped bass eat 5.3 percent of the Delta smelt population each year, as well as 6 percent of the winter-run chinook salmon and 3 percent of spring-run salmon. The numbers come from Fish and Game documents, the coalition says.
Also, rules that prohibit fishermen from taking striped bass less than 18 inches long, and from taking more than two striped bass longer than 18 inches, have allowed more smelt to be killed, the lawsuit says.
A Fish and Game spokesman said he could not comment on pending litigation.
Moyle, the UC Davis fish expert, said trawling in the 1970s would frequently yield samples that were half-smelt, half-striped bass, evidence that both species once thrived together.
"There's very little evidence of (stripers) being major predators of smelt, even when smelt were abundant," he said.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com.
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