ITEM:		INFORMATIONAL ITEMS/STAFF REPORTS
17.	CARMEL RIVER FISHERY REPORT
Meeting Date:			March 20, 2006	Budgeted:	N/A
From:			David A. Berger,	Program/	N/A
			General Manager	Line Item No.:
Prepared By:			Beverly Chaney /	Cost Estimate:	N/A
			Dave Dettman
General Counsel Approval: N/A
Committee Recommendation: N/A
CEQA Compliance: N/A

AQUATIC HABITAT AND FLOW CONDITIONS: During February 2006, Carmel River streamflow conditions were excellent for juvenile steelhead rearing, and poor to fair for adult steelhead upstream migration with streamflow to the lagoon.

During February 2006, the mean daily streamflow recorded at the District’s Carmel River Sleepy Hollow Weir gaging station averaged 131 cubic feet per second (cfs), and ranged from 42 to 1,750 cfs.

There were 3.73 inches of measurable rainfall in February as recorded by Cal-Am at San Clemente Dam (SCD), near the long-term February average of 4.39 inches at this site. The rainfall total for Water Year 2006 to date is 16.11 inches, 103% of the long-term October-February average of 15.57 inches.

CARMEL RIVER LAGOON: The Carmel River Lagoon was breached in late December 2005 and remained open until mid-January when lower river flow was unable to keep the sandbar open. During February, the mouth opened and closed a number of times and the water surface elevation (WSE) ranged from approximately 10 feet above sea level, to a critically low 2.0 feet above sea level, as shown in the chart below.

WSE at the Carmel River Lagoon, February 2006

ADULT STEELHEAD COUNTS AT SAN CLEMENTE DAM: The District’s automatic adult fish counter at the SCD Ladder was installed in early December 2005. As of February 28, 2006, 124 counts had been recorded, including four river fish that migrated over the dam before the lagoon was breached on December 27, 2005. See the daily and monthly breakdown in the chart below.

This is the lowest end-of-February total since District staff installed the automatic fish counter in 1994. The average end-of-February total since 2000 is 242 fish. This is especially troubling considering the steep downward trend in total annual number of adult fish passing over SCD since the 2001 season, when 804 fish were counted. In 2005, only 328 fish were counted, but the end-of-February 2005 count was 220, nearly twice the 2006 number. At that rate, less than 250 adults will migrate over SCD in 2006. Several large late February/early March storms brought the river flow back up from very low levels and should allow more adults to migrate upstream and over the dam to their upper spawning grounds.

TOTAL THRU 02/28/2006 124
MONTH	NUMBER OF ADULTS
DEC 2005	7
JAN 2005	51
FEB 2005	66
MAR 2005
APR 2005
MAY 2006

SLEEPY HOLLOW STEELHEAD REARING FACILITY (Facility): On July 14, 2005, staff began accepting rescued steelhead from the lower Carmel River. Approximately 24,630 rescued fish were brought to the Facility through mid-September. Approximately 24,457 fish were stocked in the tanks and rearing channel.

District Staff began releasing fish from the Facility back into the Carmel River on January 6, 2006. The fish release was much later this year than in the past for several reasons: 1) Dry fall/early winter conditions, 2) NOAA Fisheries and CDFG requests to hold fish longer, and 3) A large early-year storm that prevented staff from accessing the Facility and that created turbid water in the rearing channel. The final fish were captured and released from the rearing channel on March 3, 2006, and the Facility was shut down for the remainder of the winter.

All released fish were in excellent physical condition, and many had transformed into smolts. The overall survival rate of fish held at the Facility in 2005 was 57%. This is a very favorable result when compared to the survival of wild fish in the lower Carmel River and shows that the combination of the cooling tower, quarantine protocol, feeding regime, and nature-like habitat in the rearing channel is successful in rearing wild-caught juvenile steelhead. Also, the addition of the new rearing channel weirs proved successful in keeping the different size class fish separated and helped improve the overall survival by 13%, compared to the 2004 survival rate of 42%, by reducing in-channel predation.

The percentage of fish that died from disease, stress, or handling was moderate in 2005 (25%), with some bays experiencing much greater mortality than others (13-37%). This could be a function of when and where the fish were rescued from the river, as the habitat in some reaches was much worse than in others, so the rescued fish from that reach were more stressed and disease prone to start with. The percentage of “unaccounted for” fish in the rearing channel was much less in 2005 (18%) than it was in 2004 (52%). “Unaccounted for” fish are recorded as mortalities and are most likely due to the disparity in growth of some individual fish, which reach smolt size, or greater, approximately 6-10 inches, while other fish remain small. These larger fish can reduce the overall survival by preying on smaller juvenile steelhead in the channel. The number of “unaccounted for” fish was significantly reduced this year by thoroughly grading the fish into three size classes before stocking them in the channel, and by the use of the weirs that kept the groups separated.

The 2005 results are shown below for young-of-the-year (YOY), and larger, 1+ juvenile fish held in the rearing channel (RC), and the extra-large 1+ juvenile fish held in Tank 3 (T-3).

SHSRF Fish Summary - July 13, 2005 to March 3, 2006*
Tank #	# Fish Added	Morts (Disease)	Morts (Unaccounted for)	Total Released	% Survival	Notes
R C	24,373	6,176	4,366	13,831	56.8	YOY (4 – 14” FL at release) Segregated by bays.
T-3	84	4	0	80	95.0	Extra Large 1+ fish. Rescued in September
Totals	24,457	6,180	4,366	13,911	57.0
Unaccounted for fish were most likely eaten by other, larger fish. *Provisional data.

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