ORANGE COUNTY ON THE GO : RECREATION NOTES : Falling Water Levels Raise Concern About Steelhead

The steelhead trout in San Mateo Creek just south of San Clemente are a hardy bunch. After all, they are living in a stream previously thought to be inhospitable to the endangered fish.

However, water levels are falling fast in the small ponds holding the steelhead, prompting California Department of Fish and Game biologist Alex Vejar to take action.

On Friday, Vejar netted two steelhead in a 1 1/2-foot-deep pool on the Camp Pendleton Marine base and moved them to a deeper, shadier spot about 100 meters upstream.

“The water is still nice and cool,” Vejar said, “and hopefully it won’t drop very much more. But we’ll see.”

The southern steelhead, which once thrived in Southern California streams and rivers, are now struggling to survive, with a population thought to be fewer than 500.

Biologists believed steelhead were extinct south of Malibu Creek in northern Los Angeles County, but last February Saddleback College student Toby Shackelford caught one in a pool just north of Interstate 5. Subsequently, Vejar found 40 more upstream.

Vejar said the water level is dropping as much as a foot a month in some pools. If water reaches critically low levels, the fish could be removed and held in captivity until significant rain raises stream levels. But that isn’t the preferred solution, Vejar said. It would be better, he said, to move the fish about one mile upstream into the Cleveland National Forest, where the spring-fed creek is still running.

MOUNTAIN BIKING

Mission Viejo’s Mike Lee won the bronze medal in cross-country at the World Masters Mountain Bike Championships last weekend in Bromont, Canada. Lee, 33, finished the four eight-kilometer loops (about 20 miles total) in 1 hour 47 minutes 59.86 seconds. Bill Hurley of Canada won in 1:42:16.83 and Fabio Calvetti of Italy was second in 1:43:08.51 in the 30-34 age division.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

The Oldsmobile Alero Beach Volleyball series will hold its final event of the year in San Diego this weekend. It features a strong women’s field, but many of the top male players in the world, including Karch Kiraly, aren’t entered.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals is the domestic tour that many of the top U.S. men participate in. The San Diego event is not AVP-sanctioned, so AVP players cannot play because the Oldsmobile series is considered a competing tour.

Among the players absent in San Diego are Kiraly and partner Adam Johnson, Laguna Beach’s Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana, and Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego. The highest-ranked FIVB team competing is fourth-ranked Martin and Paul Laciga of Switzerland.

The tournament begins Friday at 11 a.m. at Crown Point Shores in Mission Bay. The semifinals and finals are Sunday.

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Times staff writer Michael Itagaki contributed to this story.