Decline of California Delta a Mystery
CNNAP
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California (US):
Biologists aboard the research vessel Scrutiny sounded the alarm a year ago when their nets came up with the fewest young striped bass and delta smelt since annual surveys began in 1959.A closer look found the populations of two other fish species, longfin smelt and threadfin shad, also had crashed.
The populations had gone down before but never simultaneously.The decline is continuing this year, even though abundant water in the system means the species should be thriving. The fish are considered harbingers of the health of California's vast delta, which supplies water to two-thirds of the state's 36 million residents.
"There's a lot of people's jobs and lives and economic well-being depending on moving water through the delta in an ecologically sound manner," said Chuck Armor of the California Department of Fish and Game, one of the scientists aboard the vessel. "It's hard to imagine a more important issue."The delta collects water from the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges in a ribbon of rivers stretching from Mount Shasta to the Central Sierra Nevada. The natural network of rivers, flood plains and wetlands drains 42 percent of California's land area and eventually winds its way to San Francisco Bay, forming the largest estuary and one of the most important ecosystems on the West Coast.
Finding solutions also could have significant consequences for farmers and Southern California water users. Enormous amounts of delta water are diverted south through federal and state pumps to irrigate some of the world's most fertile fields in the San Joaquin Valley and to satisfy the needs of Southern California's ever-expanding population.
"We are at a critical threshold," said Bill Jennings, who until recently headed the Deltakeeper environmental watchdog organization.
"We are going to make decisions within the next year that are either going to fix the delta, or we are going to use it essentially as a way station to transport water to Southern California."More than 200 foreign species have invaded the delta's many waterways, including a toxic blue-green algae, a spiny zooplankton that may be replacing more beneficial species, and tiny clams that filter water like armies of tiny vacuum cleaners and compete with fish for food.
Nov 01, 2005
CNNAP
_____
California (US):
Biologists aboard the research vessel Scrutiny sounded the alarm a year ago when their nets came up with the fewest young striped bass and delta smelt since annual surveys began in 1959.A closer look found the populations of two other fish species, longfin smelt and threadfin shad, also had crashed.
The populations had gone down before but never simultaneously.The decline is continuing this year, even though abundant water in the system means the species should be thriving. The fish are considered harbingers of the health of California's vast delta, which supplies water to two-thirds of the state's 36 million residents.
"There's a lot of people's jobs and lives and economic well-being depending on moving water through the delta in an ecologically sound manner," said Chuck Armor of the California Department of Fish and Game, one of the scientists aboard the vessel. "It's hard to imagine a more important issue."The delta collects water from the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges in a ribbon of rivers stretching from Mount Shasta to the Central Sierra Nevada. The natural network of rivers, flood plains and wetlands drains 42 percent of California's land area and eventually winds its way to San Francisco Bay, forming the largest estuary and one of the most important ecosystems on the West Coast.
Finding solutions also could have significant consequences for farmers and Southern California water users. Enormous amounts of delta water are diverted south through federal and state pumps to irrigate some of the world's most fertile fields in the San Joaquin Valley and to satisfy the needs of Southern California's ever-expanding population.
"We are at a critical threshold," said Bill Jennings, who until recently headed the Deltakeeper environmental watchdog organization.
"We are going to make decisions within the next year that are either going to fix the delta, or we are going to use it essentially as a way station to transport water to Southern California."More than 200 foreign species have invaded the delta's many waterways, including a toxic blue-green algae, a spiny zooplankton that may be replacing more beneficial species, and tiny clams that filter water like armies of tiny vacuum cleaners and compete with fish for food.
Nov 01, 2005
