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Requiem For Prospect Island: Final Fish Rescue Completed
by Dan Bacher, Editor of the FishSnifferAugust 26, 2008 -- DFG and Bureau of Reclamation staff and one volunteer transported electro shocked fish from the remaining water on Prospect Island into ice chests during a hastily-arranged fish rescue on Monday, August 25. The rescue crew loaded the ice chests onto a truck and released the fish into Miner Slough.
An estimated 600 fish were rescued, according to Louis Moore, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman. The vast majority of fish were carp, but a few Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail, goldfish and one white catfish were also rescued.
Moore said Monday was chosen for the rescue, since agency staff worried that fish would start dying if they delayed it because of rising water temperatures. “This second rescue effort was planned because a survey of the remaining aquatic habitat inside Prospect Island revealed a larger-than-expected number of fish that survived the dewatering of the island in 2007,” noted Moore.
Michael Chotkowski, Chief of Applied Sciences Branch of the Bureau of Reclamation, was surprised to see that no sunfish were rescued in the drying pool at the end of the island.
Only 10 volunteers were requested by Bureau staff for the rescue. Jerry Neuburger, webmaster for the California Sporfishing Protection Alliance, said more advance notice about the rescue could have yielded more volunteers.
“Realizing the bad press that they had received last year, the bureau scheduled a fish rescue operation for August 25," said Neuburger. "However, the announcement for the operation appears to have been bungled since the press release didn't reach fishing groups and many media outlets until Monday morning."
AB 1806, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk's Fish Rescue Plans Bill, would require the DFG and other agencies to prepare and develop protocol for fish rescues, in cooperation with volunteers, to stop another fiasco like the Prospect Island fish kill from taking place in the future. The bill has passed the Senate and is set to go back to the Assembly later this week.
A fish rescue organized by Bob McDaris, Jeff Nash and other volunteers last November was very successful, as evidenced by the few fish still remaining on the island on Monday. Unfortunately, thousands and thousands of striped bass, blackfish, splittail, bluegill and black bass died before the volunteers were able to rescue them last year, due to bureaucratic delays by state and federal agencies in allowing the volunteers to proceed.