Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation

[donsu]

http://counterpunch.com/bacher11232007.html


Death in the Delta
Thousands of Fish Stranded by Bureau of Reclamation


I just got back from investigating an impending massive fish kill at Prospect Island in the northern section of the California Delta between Miner Slough and the Sacramento Deepwater Channel. Bob McDaris, owner of Cliff's Marina in Freeport, Bob Boffitt, a KFBK Radio reporter, and another KFBK reporter and I went by boat to the area where the levee is being repaired by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamatation.

We slogged through the mud in waders and saw large schools of stripers with their dorsal fins, backs and tails out of the water as they struggled to survive. I saw a dozen dead stripers, along with one dead bluegill and a couple of dead pike minnows. Of course, we walked through just a tiny fraction of Prospect Island - McDaris on Tuesday estimated that there were thousands of fish stranded in a larger area that he pointed to after we took photos and videos.

The massive stranding of fish came to McDaris' attention when he and a local hay farmer, John Soto, went out prospecting for ducks on the island on Tuesday. Instead of finding ducks they found a fish kill in progress.

"We saw thousands of striped bass, two sturgeon, hundreds of bluegill and two 15 to 18 pound salmon stranded in the remaining water," said McDaris. "We also saw two steelhead and lots of carp. I was amazed by the number of fish that were stranded on the island and I figured that somebody should do something about it."
-snip-
--------------------------------------


killing the planet as fast as possible with stupidity