ITEM:		INFORMATIONAL ITEMS/STAFF REPORTS
25.	CARMEL RIVER FISHERY REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 2019
Meeting Date:			March 18, 2019	Budgeted:	N/A
From:			David J. Stoldt,	Program/	N/A
			General Manager	Line Item No.:
Prepared By:			Beverly Chaney	Cost Estimate:	N/A
General Counsel Review: N/A
Committee Recommendation: N/A
CEQA Compliance: This action does not constitute a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15378.

AQUATIC HABITAT AND FLOW CONDITIONS:   Wet weather continued through February 2019. Upstream migration conditions for adult steelhead are good to excellent. Downstream migration and rearing conditions for smolts and juvenile steelhead are good to excellent throughout the watershed. 

Mean daily streamflow at the Sleepy Hollow Weir ranged from 145 to 3,750 cfs (monthly mean 1,185 cfs) resulting in a massive 65,820 acre-feet (AF) of runoff - the 4th highest February amount since 1902 (only 1938, 1969, 1998, and 2017 were wetter). Mean daily streamflow at the Highway 1 gage ranged from 170 to 3,480 cfs (monthly mean 1,261 cfs) resulting in 70,030 acre-feet (AF) of runoff (see the USGS Robles Del Rio discharge graph below – note the logarithmic scale).

There were 11.85 inches of rainfall in February (273.7% of the long-term February average of 4.3”) as recorded at the San Clemente gauge (16.10 inches of rain at LPR). The rainfall total for WY 2019 (which started on October 1, 2018) is 25.27 inches, or 163% of the long-term year-to-date average of 15.50 inches (see MPWMD SC rain graph below). 

LOS PADRES DAM ADULT COUNTS:  Cal-Am maintains a fish ladder and trap at the Los Padres Dam site. All adult steelhead captured in the trap are trucked to the reservoir and released.

The first sea-run adult steelhead arrived at the trap on January 16, 2019 and as of February 28, 14 adults (5 males/9 females) have been captured and translocated above the dam. February return numbers were lower than expected after a strong January, likely due to high river flows.

The downstream smolt bypass facility was activated in early January.

CARMEL RIVER LAGOON:  The lagoon mouth opened for the season on January 6, 2019. In February the WSE ranged from approximately 3.5 to 11 feet due to changes in river inflow combined with tidal and wave action (North American Vertical Datum of 1988; NAVD 88) (see graph below).

Water quality depth-profiles were conducted at five sites on February 26, 2019 while the lagoon mouth was open, the water surface elevation was ~2 feet and draining, and river inflow was 531 cfs. Steelhead rearing and migration conditions were generally “good to fair”. Throughout the lagoon, salinity was low ranging from 0.1-7 ppt, dissolved oxygen (DO) levels were variable at 0.3-11mg/l (low in the deep section of the south arm), and water temperatures ranged from 21-61 degrees F.  

Cooperative NMFS/MPWMD/Cal-Am Studies: NMFS and MPWMD staff installed the District’s 5’ rotary Screw Trap (RST) at the upper end of Los Padres Reservoir the week of February 25^th and began to catch out-migrating juvenile steelhead the first day. The start of this project was delayed by the Federal staff furloughs. The RST is run only on weekdays, and operations have to be suspended for 24 hours or more, whenever there is a risk of high debris flows, as there often is this year. Juvenile steelhead large enough to be tagged with Passive Integrated Transponders [PIT Tagged] will be tagged and released for studies of reservoir passage timing and survival. These same tagged fish will also be providing signals as they pass through the Smolt Bypass Facility, thereby helping evaluate its efficiency. Two PIT antennae arrays are operating on the Smolt Bypass Facility; one at the mouth and one near the outlet. An additional antennae array on the spillway is planned for installation later this year. An antennae array has been operating for a few months below Los Padres Dam, but has been blown out by high flows, and can’t be reinstalled until they recede, and may be moved to a more stable location downstream. Cal-am has hired FishBio to install and test a underwater camera to count fish entering the Smolt Bypass Facility. FishBio is still testing and adjusting this camera, so only preliminary results have been acquired to date, but it was operated full time in February.

SLEEPY HOLLOW STEELHEAD REARING FACILITY:  General contractor Mercer-Fraser Company of Eureka, CA, was hired for the Intake Upgrade Project and started construction in September on the $2 million project. The main features of the project include installing a new intake structure that can withstand flood and drought conditions as well as the increased bedload from the San Clemente Dam removal project two years ago, and a new Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) that can be operated in times of low flow or high turbidity to keep the fish healthy. February work was slowed by the wet conditions but progress was made on the building structure and underground plumbing.

U:\staff\Boardpacket\2019\20190318\InfoItems\25\Item-25.docx