Rescuing the threatened Santa Ana sucker fish

Brian Wang, 20, left, Perry Lau, 21, and Parsa Saffarinia, 24, all students from UC Riverside, catch and rescue threatened Santa Ana sucker fish from the Santa Ana River after a treatment plant halted flows into a stretch of the waterway in Colton.

Conservationists, state wildlife authorities and volunteers rescued threatened Santa Ana sucker fish after a water treatment plant halted flows into a stretch of the Santa Ana River in Colton.

Heather Dyer, a biologist with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, looks for Santa Ana sucker fish in the Santa Ana River.

Conservationists, state wildlife authorities and volunteers venture out along the Santa Ana River. “We are caught between the federal Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act,” said Stacey Aldstadt, general manager of the San Bernardino Municipal Water District.

Parsa Saffarinia, 24, Brian Wang, 20, and Perry Lau, 21, all students from UC Riverside, try to catch Santa Ana sucker fish. “We’re forced to decide which enforcement agency we can afford to offend worse, Fish and Wildlife or the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which could have us indicted, handcuffed and sent to jail,” said Stacey Aldstadt, general manager of the San Bernardino Municipal Water District.

Brandy Wood, a biologist with San Bernardino Flood Control, walks through the receding Santa Ana River looking for sucker fish. The total number of Santa Ana suckers killed remains unknown. But records show that 1,361 suckers were rescued in September and January, and at least 81 died before they could be saved.

Kerwin Russell of the Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District scoops threatened Santa Ana sucker fish into a bucket. “The fish are being dealt a serious injustice,” said Jason May, a USGS biologist. “It’s a travesty when you get down to it.”