Originally posted by: Johneeed on 1/15/2006 10:52:45 AM

Now that's just a damn awful shame...

I love stripers to fish for and eat...
I remember back in the 70's when the stocks crashed out here on the east coast.........
it was about 15 years before they recovered...
And I feel that it's not fully recovered to the point it should be but it's comming back...


To all the west coast striper fans.....

I feel your pain....

J.D.

Originally posted by: davesett2000 on 1/3/2006 8:29:33 AM

Posted on Tue, Jan. 03, 2006
SCIENTISTS SEEK CLUES IN BASS DEATHSFish deaths are part of a study of the delta's environmental woes

By DON THOMPSONAssociated Press

DAVIS, Ca. - If the striped bass in David Ostrach's laboratory are any indication, the fish of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are in deep trouble.
Ostrach is among an array of scientists trying to determine what has led to a crash in the populations of striped bass and three other bellwether fish species in the vast estuary that irrigates the Central Valley and supplies drinking water to two-thirds of Californians.
Among roughly 60 striped bass autopsied by the University of California at Davis biologist, all had at least two problems with gastric inflammations, parasitic infestations, infections or liver lesions. That was a signal that they had been exposed to poisons, parasites or disease.
''What the fish are telling me is that there's something wrong,'' he says. ''This juvenile population is not a healthy population.''
The findings coincide with his earlier work. He previously found nerve damage and developmental abnormalities among newborn bass, problems he attributes to a chemical stew of pesticides, herbicides and cancer-causing elements in delta water.
His research has intrigued colleagues who have been searching for the causes of a precipitous decline in the delta's key fish species. Chemical contamination is one of the theories scientists will explore in the coming year as they allocate $3.2 million in research money to scientists studying the delta's environmental woes.
Studying the populations of striped bass, delta smelt, longfin smelt and threadfin shad is important because they are considered indicators of the delta's overall health. Their demise is slowing plans to pump even more water to thirsty cities and crops.
''We've got such a chemical soup out there, and he's doing a great job determining what's in that soup,'' said Bruce Herbold, a fish biologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Two other leading theories also will be tested this year.
One involves an invasive clam that is native to Asia and has covered Suisun Bay. Its voracious filtering cleanses delta water of the very nutrients fish need to survive.
The clams have become so prevalent in the bay -- up to 10,000 per square meter -- that they completely filter food from the water once each day.
''Suisun Bay may be getting back to being a bad sort of nursery area,'' Herbold said. ''Young fish may not be finding food where they're located.''
Yet the clam problem doesn't explain the decline in threadfin shad, which don't live where the clams are found. The clams were at a high level in the 1990s, when the fish seemingly weren't significantly affected.
The other theory involves the giant pumps that send water to farmers and Southern California cities. They are blamed for sucking in large numbers of fish before they can spawn.
The pumps are killing more fish per volume of water and more fish in proportion to their population compared to previous years. They also are doing so in the winter before the adult fish can spawn.
Winter pumping is up about 30 percent since 2000 in an attempt to lessen water diversions in the spring and summer when spawning fish were thought to need it most.
The additional winter kill may not have been a problem when the fish were abundant, but now the death toll may be feeding on itself by killing off the breeding stock, said Christina Swanson, a scientist with the nonprofit Bay Institute.
Representatives for water exporters challenge the death statistics, and scientists say their data is incomplete.
Nevertheless, the clam population and the number of fish deaths attributed to pumping have risen dramatically in recent years, corresponding to the decrease in the four fish populations.
Most scientists suspect a combination of factors is to blame. Other possible culprits for the fish decline include herbicides, toxic algae, thick growth of water plants and a spiny plankton.
The scientists hope the research that will get under this year will start providing conclusive answers.

Originally posted by: CaliStriperFisherman on 8/30/2006 5:30:57 PM

What's the Latest and greatest on this situation. Do we need to put Stripers off limits for a couple of years to give them a chance to recouperate or what. Life Member, Bernie Kendall, Fairfield, Ca.

Originally posted by: davesett2000 on 9/2/2006 5:30:15 PM

Here's one article I found at... http://www.watershedportal.org/news/ <!--graemlin::eek:-->
I grew up on a farm...and also realize that farms provide food for us...but farmers need to abide by chemical laws...and just plain good sense for a change <!--graemlin::(-->

Delta In Crisis, But Water Board Extends Ag Waivers For Five Years
Fish Sniffer Magazine - June 30, 2006 By Dan Bacher

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board voted on June 22 to extend waivers for discharges from irrigated farm land for five years, in spite of pleas from a coalition of anglers, farmworkers and environmental justice advocates to subject agribusiness to the same general discharge permit that others have to abide by.

That waiver adopted in July 2003 provided for the establishment of voluntary coalitions of farmers to tackle agricultural pollution. Unlike industry, businesses and municipalities, agricultural discharges have been unregulated and not subject to regulation by general waste discharge permits. This has allowed agribusiness to pollute Central Valley waterways with a toxic brew of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and sediment.

The board, in a 5 to 2 vote, built a little bit more accountability into the waiver process by requiring the submission of an electronic list of the members of the coalitions. In addition, the Board Executive Officer may ask for maps delineating the participants and non-participants in the coalitions. The time line for joining up with a coalition is now December 31 - and after that the individual dischargers would be subject to individual permits, again at the discretion of the Executive Officer.

Board members Robert Schneider, Karl Longley, Alson Brizard, Katherine Hart, and Paul Bettencourt voted for the waiver, while Christopher Cabaldon and Dan Odenweller voted against it.

Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said the Board missed its opportunity to protect the environment and the public, deciding instead to protect agribusiness.

“I'm glad that the board finally reiterated the requiring of lists of the member of the coalitions, but it is not really an advance over the 2003 waiver,” said Jennings. “It would have been an advance if mandatory management plans were required when water quality standards aren't met, but that would still have been only a modest step.”

He emphasized, “By continuing the waiver, the Board effectively ceded the state's responsibility for water quality to industry advocacy groups. The waiver amounts to a subsidy to farmers, a transfer of the cost of pollution from the dischargers to the public. It is time to show as much compassion for the victims of pollution as it is does for the dischargers.”

Carrie McNeill, the Deltakeeper, had a similar reaction to the Board's controversial vote. “They are saying they are going to take baby steps when we have a major ecosystem crisis, with a food chain collapse in the Delta while the groundwater is not fit to drink in many Central Valley communities,” she stated.
McNeill, Jennings, Laurel Firestone of the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, Mindy McIntire of the Planning and Conservation League and many others described the waiver program as a big failure, emphasizing that virtually no improvements had been made since the waiver program had gone into effect.

In fact, in the past three years the situation in the Central Valley and Delta has become increasingly worse, including the documentation by federal and state scientists of a food chain crash on the Delta, the listing of the green sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act, and increasing reports of groundwater and wells polluted by pesticides and fertilizers.

On the other hand, some farmers at the hearing, though happy that the Board approved a waiver rather than a general waste discharge, were upset that the board had decided to introduced even a limited amount of accountability into the waiver program by requiring the coalitions supposedly monitoring and dealing with agricultural pollution to maintain membership lists.

The Board's staff and Central Valley farmers tried to portray the waiver program to date as some sort of success, although opponents of the waivers pointed out how state agencies have documented increases - rather than decreases - in the use of toxic chemicals and their presence in Valley waterways.

For example, A 2005 U.C. Davis study of Pixley Slough at Eight Mile Road in Stockton found that EPA standards for pesticides and toxic metals had been exceeded many times in one year. They found standards for diazon were exceeded 14 times, cadmium 7 times, copper 11 times, zinc 4 times and lead 25 times. In addition, they found 64 different pesticides in the drainage water to Grantline Canal alone.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation also found pesticides present in 96 percent of the water sites tested, while farm pollutants have been found in drinking supplies for 16.5 million Californians in 46 counties.

“The most appropriate, effective means for regulating irrigated land impacts on surface and groundwater is a general order of waste discharge requirements like all other industries,” was the recommendation of the Bay Keeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and California Coastkeeper Alliance.

The turnout by fishing, farm worker and environmental groups was very impressive. Before the meeting, a coalition of over 130 organizations submitted a strongly worded letter to the board calling on them to submit agriculture to general waste discharge permits. Also, around 80 people holding signs held a rally outside of the meeting room before they went in to testify about the impact of toxics on fish and other aquatic life, ground water and the health of rural communities.

Dozens of farmworkers and family members took the day off to testify to the dramatic impact that polluted runoff from pesticides and fertilizers have had on drinking water supplies and the health of thousands of rural Californians. Fertilizers have leached into groundwater, causing high levels of nitrate contamination in the drinking water supply over much of the Central Valley.

“Our communities are the ones who are paying the costs of this waiver,” said Ruth Martinez, a Ducor Water Board representative and member of Asociacíon de Gente Unida por el Agua (AGUA), a grassroots coalition of communities who traveled over 600 miles to protest the agricultural waiver.

“We pay while they poison us,” she said as she held up a bottle of brown, disgusting looking groundwater from the Ducor water supply. “We pay for drinking water that has been poisoned by these agricultural companies. Then, we pay even more money for bottled water because we can't drink our tap water. And then we have to live with the rashes, the hair loss and the threat to our health.”

Other farmworkers, including Marita Salazar, Maria Orozco and Gustavo Aguirre, testified to the alarming rate of cancer in many rural communities. Many communities, such McFarland in the San Joaquin Valley, are considered “cancer clusters” because of the abnormal rate of cancer and birth defects caused by agricultural contamination of groundwater supplies.

Fishing groups testified to the impact that agricultural pollution was having on them also. “Dirty, unclean water from agricultural waste water is killing people, fish and animals,” said Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California. “With the decimation of the food chain, fish species in the Delta are crashing and pollution has been shown to be one of the major causes. Please help us get this water cleaned up by not approving the waivers for another five years.”

Members of the California Striped Bass Association, Save the American River Association (SARA), Federation of Fly Fishers, Friends of the River and other groups also showed at the hearing in force to oppose the waiver.

David Nesmith of the Environmental Water Caucus summed up his feelings about the meeting:

“The Board seems bent on ignoring California clean water requirements when agriculture is the major polluter of the Delta and pollution is one of the three main causes of the Delta food chain decline,” he said. “The way the board approaches this problem denies the reality of the people being hurt by the pollution. Being in the hearing room was an Orwellian experience; the Board says they are enforcing the law when breaking it and says they're improving water quality when they're making it worse.”

The California Highway Patrol was also there in force with five officers, adding to the Orwellian atmosphere of the hearing. One officer claimed that the rally outside the board hearing office was illegal because the clean water advocates had no permit and the signs were of an “illegal size.” Nonetheless, folks weren't intimidated and proudly displayed their signs in opposition to the waiver.

I was appalled that the board approved the agricultural waivers. The Delta food chain is in crisis, farmworkers living in areas with contaminated water are getting sick and dying of cancer, the Central Valley Rivers are less healthy than they were three years ago, and the members of the Board just don't seem to care!

Jennings said his group is planning to appeal the granting of the waivers to the State Water Resources Control Board. If the appeal doesn't produce results, they intend to file a lawsuit against the state.

“The board had the opportunity to be the protector or executioner of the Delta. They chose to be its executioner,” Jennings concluded.

For more information, contact: Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 209-938-9053,

Originally posted by: CaliStriperFisherman on 9/3/2006 8:55:09 AM

Thak you for the update. It IS very appreciated. This explains to me why our striper population is dropping off.

Originally posted by: katguy on 9/3/2006 10:46:38 PM

dropping off??? its getting better down here!

Originally posted by: kaos on 9/8/2006 10:46:44 PM

GGGGGRRRRR Damn poopititions

Originally posted by: davesett2000 on 9/9/2006 7:31:54 PM

quote:

Originally posted by katguy:
dropping off??? its getting better down here!

Originally posted by: katguy on 9/15/2006 8:43:46 PM

newport harbore south (off the beach) and the aqueduct from taft to hesperia.

check out the pic at the bottom of this page

thats not me, its a guy named steve.

http://www.scsurffishing.com/pictures.htm

Originally posted by: lbt on 9/20/2006 4:08:50 PM

somemore thoughts on striper, I personally know of two hot spot on are local river one is a sewer plant witch is way to close to the river and a very popular chicken company who has acers of ses/airation pools and its feet from the river, there is even a canal that lets out near by and is a hot spot for bass waiting on anything to float out. the water is hot and pungent compared to the river,it doesn't stink bad but we know were the water comes from,I only catch and release.I know of a buddy who cleaned out about 5 2to5 lbs bass in an hour or so out of this one spot. witch dissapointed me do to the fact if i'm not catching for awhile I know I can catch somthing there. Me and another buddy went out the next day and caught more nice fish (should of been keepers)none with scares or abnormal so we knew the fish are some what fighting for this gumbo of toxic waste and what ever else is in it, witch is the same things me and my bud's do, it's only smart?or is it? these would be great starting point to consider toward any ansewers of striper decline and pollution. but Ive seen more, one day out on a recon mission(for new fish spots) me and a bud happened across five gallons buckets and tied trash bags floating in a creek it hapenes that it was meth waste.A local teacher, rancher, buddy said that happens out there all the time, any spot close to a road that is easy to dump from is prime, if it will float away even better inthe meth makers eyes. As we all know that California is the home of meth this problem is been going on for longer than anyone realy knew or any one who cared realy knew. Ive never heard of big meth dumps or closers of creeks rivers or lakes. But im sure we should have had to have some that needed to be closed for the public saftey but i think the news dosn't want to say and or HAZMAT spokepersons try to keep it on the down low.(JOKEING The good is fast speed fish that fight quick and hard but somtimes get side traked, the bad is the fish are dying and the flies that are adictied too meth byte the shirt off you if you get wet from the meth water,the ugly is all the meth mouth peeps that can't eat these contaminated fish and wouldnt have an appitite if they could eat em') i too care to keep are water clean but how is the quetion, do you feel like chicken tonight or contminated fish. its a tough cycle to break but let me know if there is anything we/I can do to help! The stipper are doing well up hear on the Merced river more hook ups this year on striper while fishing for bass it seems the population is growing more or they are more comon to us. Let me know if this helps and if there is any thing we as humans can do to keep are stiper from turning in to strippers.