Water Districts Take 40 Rare Trout for Study

A team of biologists hired by water districts caught 40 rare steelhead trout in Santa Paula and Matilija creeks this week as part of a last-minute study to influence whether the oceangoing fish will soon be protected as an endangered species.

Using an electric fishing rig similar to a stun gun, the biologists also captured a bucketful of steelhead in the Ventura River. But these fish were not killed. Instead researchers clipped a portion of a fin on each fish for genetic analysis and then let them go.

Meanwhile, environmental activists have protested the capture of steelhead in Ventura County streams and dozens of fish farther north, contending that the research duplicates earlier efforts and is pushing the species closer to extinction.

“It certainly has the potential of studying these fish to death,” said Jim Edmondson, executive director of California Trout Inc. “How many fish do we need to kill before we answer the question if this species qualifies as endangered?”

Federal researchers are doing their own study on the fish, aimed at determining whether the Southern California steelhead is a genetically distinct species that needs protection under the Endangered Species Act.

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Water suppliers maintain they want only to help the federal government make the right decision, particularly because steps to protect an endangered species could limit how much water they can siphon from streams and rivers to supply cities and agriculture.

“Our motive here really is to make sure that any decision is based on the best scientific data available,” said Jennifer Persike-Becker, a spokeswoman for the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

“We want to protect species, but we also want to protect water supplies in California,” she said.

The last-minute study, dubbed Operation Steelhead, initially spawned a series of skirmishes over state Department of Fish and Game permits to kill as many as 200 fish in 11 streams in California.

At one point last month, two Fish and Game officials staked out the road to Matilija Creek after headquarters alerted them that water agency biologists might try to capture more of the remnant trout than their permits allowed.

The biologists never showed, instead agreeing to postpone casting electric rods into the water until state Fish and Game officials determined which creeks could stand to lose another 20 fish to research.

Ultimately, the department gave permission to kill up to 140 fish in seven streams. It also granted approval to catch, clip the fins and release steelhead in four other streams.

“We didn’t issue those permits until me and my supervisors were convinced that they would not harm the steelhead populations,” said Dennis McEwan, a steelhead specialist with the state Fish and Game Department in Sacramento.

California Trout continues to protest the permits, citing that the National Marine Fisheries Service received permission to capture 110 steelhead for its genetic studies to determine whether to propose adding the fish to the endangered species list. The fisheries service will announce its decision Feb. 16.

Among other inquiries, both studies are trying to determine whether the steelhead in Southern California can be considered genetically distinct from its Northern California cousin.

Such a finding would make the fish a strong candidate for the endangered list. “I would be hard-pressed to find a group of steelhead who are more endangered than this one,” McEwan said.

Jean Baldrige, a biologist coordinating the study of Southern California steelhead for the water agencies, said her study should complement rather than duplicate the work done by the fisheries service.

She said the fish collected in streams should fill gaps in information developed in the federal study. “The National Marine Fisheries Service has limited staff and limited dollars to dig up all of this information,” Baldrige said. “Our work is to supplement their data.”

Baldrige said her crews have been careful not to harm the steelhead populations. For example, she said, they decided not to take any fish from Coyote Creek above the Ventura River because they could not find the 20 needed for a representative sample.

She said she has been surprised at the commotion over permits issued to her research crews. “We’ve been taking 20 fish out of a stream where anglers could take five fish a day all year-round,” she said. “You have to ask, ‘Why is it such a big deal?’ ”

The Ventura and Santa Clara rivers once supported thousands of steelhead, as did many rivers from northern Mexico to Alaska. But steelhead no long exist in Northern Mexico, or San Diego and Orange counties.

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They are limited to small populations in four streams in Southern California--the Santa Clara and Ventura rivers in Ventura County, Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County and the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County--and their tributaries.

Like the salmon, steelhead are born in freshwater. They look identical to rainbow trout and remain in freshwater streams for one to three years before swimming to sea for a similar period. Once in the ocean, they take on a different color and their lower jaws become more pronounced.

As adults, they return to their natal streams to spawn. Then they either return to the sea, or die, worn out from the upstream battle.