Article from Calaveras Enterprise.
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/news/article_e6a550d8-8998-11e5-83f7-57226107731a.html
Eggs unlikely to survive high temps in Stanislaus
Dana Nichols Nov 12, 2015
In other times, most folks would be cheering the news of a record salmon run on the Stanislaus River.
But there really aren’t many happy stories involving fish and California rivers in the fourth year of the state’s worst ever drought. Biologists say most of the salmon swimming up the Stanislaus River this fall are likely here only because conditions are even worse on other California rivers and that high water temperatures mean that the eggs laid in the river are unlikely to survive.
FishBio, a firm that studies salmon on the Stanislaus River on behalf of the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts, reported this week that as of Monday, more than 6,000 salmon had passed through a weir used to count the spawning salmon, the most by that date since monitoring began in 2003.
The press release goes on to say, however, “… these record numbers bring little cause for celebration because of the coinciding record highs in river water temperatures, which can kill salmon eggs.”
“There isn’t a single riffle in that river with suitable temperature conditions for their eggs,” said senior biologist Andrea Fuller.
The media statement said that the temperature now in the river is about 60 degrees, a full 5 degrees more than normal and higher than what scientists say is suitable for eggs.
The looming demise of the fall run eggs, in turn, has triggered finger pointing. The FishBio press release blames earlier pulse flows released from New Melones Dam upstream for depleting water storage behind the dam that would otherwise have been available to manage water temperatures.
Those pulse flows were intended by federal biologists to protect fish.
But at least one advocate for conservation of fish species said it makes just as much sense to blame other users of the river water for draining New Melones.
“It is the culmination of multiple years of mismanagement of resources on the Stan,” said Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “That’s right, we drew the reservoir down. They took a lot of water over the last four years and the fish didn’t get a lot.”
Shane Hunt is a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates New Melones Reservoir. He defended the agency’s long time policy of cooperating with other federal agencies to follow laws intended to protect fish species.
“We have tried to make the best use of limited supplies in this fourth year of drought,” Hunt said. “We are hopeful that the ambient air temperature will decrease enough to reduce water temperatures and improve the survival outlook for the fall-run eggs.”
Jim Milbury, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said he was unable to immediately find a biologist or official able to go into specifics about efforts to protect salmon on the Stanislaus River.
“I can say the situation is much more complicated than the news release alludes,” Milbury said. “Suggesting there would be plenty of cold water if there hadn’t been pulse flows is somewhat simplistic while trying to manage through four years of unprecedented drought.”