Friday November 4, 2022
Daily Kos —
For the seventh September in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has caught zero Delta smelt during its Fall Midwater Trawl Survey of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The last September when Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the relative health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, were found in the survey was in 2015, when 5 were caught by CDFW biologists.
The last year when any Delta smelt were caught during the entire four-month survey was in 2016, when a total of 8 Delta smelt were reported.
The final results of the four month survey of pelagic (open water) fish species, from September through mid-December, won’t be available from the CDFW until late December or early January. Normally a report from the Department summarizing the results of the abundance indices (a relative measure of abundance) for the different fish species is released at that time.