(11-19) 21:31 PST -- Most of California's native salmon, steelhead and trout species face extinction by the end of the century unless the state acts quickly to provide adequate freshwater and habitat, according to a study released Wednesday by the state's leading salmon expert. Twenty of 31 species of the prized fishes are in sharp decline, including the Sacramento River winter run of chinook salmon, the Sierra's California golden trout and coastal coho, according to the study by Peter Moyle, a nationally known UC Davis professor of conservation biology.
The fish advocacy group, California Trout, that commissioned the study will use the results to try to help persuade legislators and the governor to direct and help the California Department of Fish and Game to better carry out its mission of conserving the state's wild fish. Decades of lax controls on farming, logging, grazing, mining and road-building have filled and polluted streams, the study said, while the removal of streamside vegetation on the North Coast, in Sierra creeks and on inland lagoons has warmed the water and harmed fish.
For the past 50 years, ocean salmon that spawn in rivers from the Klamath south to the Sacramento have been blocked by dams and other barriers and deprived of water diverted to farms and cities by state and federal water projects. In some recent years, salmon returning to the ocean to feed and grow have found a poor food supply of krill, squid and smaller fish caused by higher water temperatures that could be related to global warming.
"Our fish need cold, clean water to survive, but they're getting less and less of it," Moyle said. "Dams block access. Climate change is now looming to exacerbate the threat, and it increases the urgency. All of these things are pushing our fish toward extinction.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/20/MN3E147V6I.DTL
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