Summer rescues save thousands of steelhead
Endangered steelhead trout get trapped when river dries
CARMEL VALLEY >> Last week, staff from the Monterey Peninsula water district waded into pools of water along what was once a running Carmel River to rescue endangered steelhead trout trapped when portions of the river dried up this summer.
Overpumping from the river’s underground basin dropped the water level down to the point where sections dry up, leaving small pools where the fish could no longer swim out to their ocean habitat.
Steelhead are born in the river, migrate out to sea and come back to spawn, explained Cory Hamilton, associate fisheries biologist with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, which operates the steelhead rescue program. Carmel River steelhead are federally listed and protected as a threatened species.
“Groundwater extraction from the basin, which translates to loss of surface water in the river, continues to be the No. 1 limiting factor for steelhead recovery,” Hamilton said.
This year, the water district initiated fish rescues in the Carmel River in May. Since then, the district has rescued over 6,000 steelhead, including 10 adult fish that were trying to return to the ocean. The Carmel River population suffered significant losses during the last drought period, which lasted from 2012 through 2015. It’s been slowly recovering, but not to pre-drought numbers yet, Hamilton said.
The rescue begins with Hamilton and his team wading into pockets on the river with netting, or if the channel’s vegetation or width makes netting impractical, they wade in with five-gallon buckets and poles with baskets to capture the fish.
The juvenile fish are taken to the district’s Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility in Carmel Valley. There they are raised at the facility until flows return in the lower river, which is typically in December or January, Hamilton said. They are then released back into the areas from where they were rescued.
“A number of fish are tagged in order to track their migration and survival, which assists in fisheries management decisions,” Hamilton said.
Steelhead trout are the same as salmon in that they are both freshwater and saltwater species, a characteristic called anadromy. The only difference is that steelhead don’t always die after spawning in freshwater. Instead, some survive and travel back to the ocean then return the next year, even bigger and with more eggs.
“That’s why it was important that we rescued the adults this year,” Hamilton said. “It’s more bang
for your buck, if you will.”
The adult fish are released into the ocean at Stewarts Cove on Carmel River Beach. This year’s winter was bleak, with one major storm in late January and no significant rainfall in spring, which has led the river to dry up earlier than normal.
But before they can be released at Stewarts Cove, they must first be acclimated to saltwater. Hamilton said that fish will naturally hang out in the Carmel River Lagoon or estuary — which is a mix of sea and freshwater — before they take the plunge into fullstrength saltwater.
“Acclimating is not just for the salinity but also for the water temperature,” Hamilton said. “It’s kind of like when you jump into a really cold pool and you get shocked for a few minutes. When that happens in nature, you are easy prey while you’re shocked. So acclimating allows the fish to get used to the environmental conditions so that when we release them in the ocean they are not shocked and can move quickly to safety.”
The rescue process can be difficult and challenging on a number of fronts. Parts of the river are shrouded with thick growth along the banks that limit access. Time is also a factor. As the summer moves on there are varying water levels and poorer water quality so “time is of the essence because their habitat is diminishing each day and we sometimes have a lot to cover,” Hamilton said.
The rescue effort is important because steelhead are a top predator in the ecological web of the river, so when you take out the top predators you disrupt how the natural cycle takes care of itself, Hamilton explained. That’s why steelhead are considered an indicator of the health of the river.
They provided at one time an important economic value. They brought people to the area to fish the river in the winter back in the 1970s and 1980s when the runs were more robust.
Journalist Ray March, in his acclaimed history of the river titled “River in Ruin,” spoke with staff from the state Department of Fish and Game (now Fish and Wildlife) and the Steelhead Association to chronicle the demise of the sport fishery in the 1980s and early 1990s.
“The river and the steelhead were one and the same,” March wrote in his 2012 book. “There could not be a river such as the Carmel River, with its history of the legendary steelhead, without the fish, and conversely there could not be the mighty steelhead without the river.”
March noted that the population of steelhead in the river prior to 1850 numbered as many as 20,000. By the decade of 1964 to 1975, their numbers dropped to 3,177 — just a quarter of their historic levels, which makes it even more important that Hamilton and his team have rescued nearly 6,000 fish.
“We are the main reason for their decline,” Hamilton said. Therefore we should be responsible for their protection.”