Point Reyes Light - July 25, 2002
Volunteers move coho from puddles to currents
By Andrea Blum
Woodacre watershed biologist Reuven Walder of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN) on Tuesday led a group of volunteers in saving baby coho salmon trapped in evaporating pools of tributaries to Lagunitas/Papermill Creek.
Because these small creeks hold the largest populations of wild coho left in California, biologists, naturalists, and other volunteers spent Tuesday wading in the creekbeds with nets, collecting baby fish trapped in stagnant pools and releasing them in flowing waters.
While volunteers, including many children, scooped the muddy pools of Larsen Creek with their nets, biologists counted and measured the tiny fry.
"Today we will probably get 100 fish," said Walder. "Then we will release them about 400 yards away in San Geronimo Creek."
The fish hatched this spring were trapped in the drying pools and would otherwise have died from lack of flowing water. Forest Knolls-based SPAWN has managed to collect more than 5,000 fish in the last five years and relocate them to safe waters, Walder said.
Travel as far as Japan
If the fish survive through next summer, they will make their way to the ocean where they often grow to 12 to 15 pounds and can travel as far as Japan before returning in three years to San Geronimo Creek to spawn and die.
Ironically, the some of the volunteers, who helped the fish may be indirectly contributing to their endangerment by merely residing in the San Geronimo Valley, said Walden. "Over development of the watershed area is the main problem," he explained.
Officials said other problems threatening coho survival statewide include reduced flows from creeks, impassable culverts, sedimentation, the lowering of the water table, and direct pumping of water out of streams. As a result the present populations of coho are 90 percent below historical figures.
Steelhead v. coho
During previous relocations, 90 percent of the fish caught were steelheads while only 10 percent were coho salmon. This year the count was reversed with cohos making up 95 percent of the fish relocated.
The difference, said SPAWN director Todd Steiner, occurred because early rains last October coincided with salmon runs, allowing the salmon to have full-creek flows, ideal for spawning.
The steelhead weren’t so lucky because their run comes in January and February, a time when rainfall was scarce this year.
Next Thursday, the state Fish and Game Commission will meet in San Luis Obispo to consider declaring coho salmon north of San Francisco as an endangered species. The federal Environmental Protection Agency currently lists coho south of San Francisco as "endangered" and coho north of San Francisco as "threatened."
The commission will also consider a development plan for a recovery strategy. Controlling erosion, sedimentation, construction of road crossings, and maintenance of creekside buffers are among the matters to be considered in developing a recovery strategy, the state Department of Fish and Game said.
Why coho change proposed
Why list the coho here as endangered when they already are receiving federal protection? "State agencies will get a seat at the [negotiating] table with regard to the species," said Gail Newton, program manager for the Nature Anadromous Fish and Watershed Branch of Fish and Game.
Newton said that Fish and Game wants to be involved with, "any actions taken that might affect the species." She used, as an example, a major timber harvest where a company might file a harvest plan and seek permits from the National Forest Service or the Environmental Protection Agency.
With regards to a "recovery strategy," Fish and Game want to find a way to completely restore the coho fisheries. Newton said. "We don’t want to be purely in the regulatory arena; we want to bring all the stakeholders to the table [including government agencies and private corporations] and get in on the planning."
Newton acknowledged recent local efforts and gave the highest praise to Marin County. "It is the best place in the state for good work in bringing back the coho," she said.