Rare Steelhead Trout Seen in Topanga Canyon Creek

Less than a year after the federal government listed the southern steelhead trout as an endangered species, one of the rare fish was spotted by a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist in a shallow pool in Topanga Canyon Creek.

The July 31 sighting by Anthony Spina marks the first official sighting of the fish south of Malibu Creek--considered the southernmost run of steelhead in the United States. The discovery was announced Monday at a meeting of the Topanga Watershed Committee.

“It’s very encouraging,” said Rosi Dagit, a conservation biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, who was with Spina when he saw the fish. “I think what it really means is we haven’t gotten so far gone in our watershed that we can’t make it a good place again.”

Dagit said she had invited Spina, a fisheries biologist in the Habitat Conservation Division of the fisheries service, to hike Topanga Creek. Accompanied by Dagit’s assistant, her 9-year-old son and his friend, they explored about two miles of the sun-dappled stream as Spina gently slipped into various pools to scout for steelhead using a snorkeling mask.

Spina, who has studied trout for a decade, said he spotted a juvenile steelhead in a pool that was 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep. The fish was about 5 inches long, he said.

“I wasn’t too surprised,” Spina said, “because they are in Malibu Creek, which is nearby, and Arroyo Sequit,” another nearby stream in Ventura County. Topanga Creek is about six miles from Malibu Creek.

Steelhead are the anadromous version of rainbow trout--meaning they are born in freshwater streams, migrate to the sea after about two years, and return to their native streams to spawn. Unlike salmon, they can spawn more than once.

Dennis McEwan, a steelhead specialist at the California Department of Fish and Game, said small rainbow trout exist in the headwaters of other streams south of Malibu Creek. But once the young fish migrate to the ocean, they are often blocked from reentering as adult steelhead by barriers in the streams.

“It’s very exciting,” McEwan said of the Topanga sighting. “I think it’s highly significant, although it doesn’t surprise me.”

Centuries ago, steelhead populations were found throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, from Russia to northern Baja California. More than 23 steelhead stocks are now believed to be extinct, and 43 are at risk of extinction on the West Coast, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Development, overfishing and government neglect have contributed to the steelhead’s decline, said Jim Edmondson, conservation director of CalTrout, a San-Francisco based conservation group.

In August of last year, the federal government listed steelhead in Southern California as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, indicating they are at risk of soon becoming extinct. The population had plummeted from 55,000 returning adults to less than 500. Steelhead on the central and south-central California coast were listed as threatened, meaning they are at risk of becoming endangered.

In March this year, the federal government declared that steelhead were also threatened in California’s Central Valley and in the lower Columbia River region of Oregon and Washington.

The last time steelhead were officially documented in Topanga Creek was in 1980, Dagit said. The recent discovery of a single fish, she said, “actually raises more questions than it answers.

“I mean, steelhead lay thousands of eggs,” Dagit said. “How come we’re only seeing one?”

Jim Lecky, the fisheries service’s assistant regional administrator for protected resources, said the agency would need evidence of steelhead in Topanga Creek over several years before it would consider changing its designation for the southern limit of the species.

“It’s one data point, so it needs to be considered in context and developed further,” Lecky said.

Still, even one fish was cause for celebration among conservationists.

“I would say it’s a cause for optimism because there is a certain magic resiliency of these fish,” said Edmondson. “If given the slightest opportunity to multiply and to create a future generation, they do.”

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Steelhead Trout Sighting

A lone southern steelhead trout was recently spotted in Topanga Canyon Creek, about six miles south of Malibu Creek, considered the southern boundary for this endangered species.

Steelhead Trout

Species: Salmo gairdneril, the sea-run version of rainbow trout.

Description: Silver in the sea, darker and spotted with reddish-pink stripe when migrating upstream to spawn. Up to 45 inches and 40 pounds. Average is under 10 pounds.

Spawning: Young live in freshwater streams for about two years, then at sea for one to three years. They return to their birthplace to spawn, and, unlike salmon, often survive to do it again.

Southern California Habitat: Santa Clara River, Ventura River, Sespe Creek, Malibu Creek, Santa Ynez River. Believed extinct in the rest of Los Angeles County and Orange and San Diego counties.

Source: National Marine Fisheries Service