ITEM:		INFORMATIONAL ITEM/STAFF REPORT
26.	CARMEL RIVER FISHERY REPORT FOR AUGUST 2020
Meeting Date:			September 21, 2020	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: Carmel River flows held relatively steady in August, providing fair rearing conditions for steelhead young-of-the-year (YOY) in the mid to upper watershed and poor conditions in the lower valley. 

August’s mean daily streamflow at the Sleepy Hollow Weir ranged from 5.8 to 10 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs) (monthly mean 8.3 cfs) resulting in 508 acre-feet (AF) of runoff. Mean daily streamflow at the Highway 1 gage is trickling from 1.2 to 0.45 cfs (monthly mean 0.70 cfs) resulting in 43 acre-feet (AF) of runoff.

There were 0.00 inches of rainfall in August as recorded at the San Clemente gauge. The rainfall total for WY 2020 (which started on October 1, 2019) is 17.57 inches, or 83.3% of the long-term year-to-date average of 21.08 inches. 

CARMEL FIRE and PG&E OUTAGES: Excessive heat on August 14-15 triggered PG&E power shut offs at the District’s Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility (SHSRF). Then two days later, a large lightning storm shut down the power again and set off the “River Fire” near Spreckels. District fisheries staff, along with District consultant, Kim Cohan of Telemetrix worked hard together throughout these outages and the fires for the next two weeks to troubleshoot facility components and save the fish.

The big local news story of the month was the “Carmel Fire” that broke out on Cachagua Grade road Monday, August 17 and quickly spread into Cachagua Valley, as well as over the ridge into the San Clemente canyon thus threating the District’s Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility. Flames were clearly visible from the Facility’s in-road Tuesday morning when staff made a last dash to the facility to feed the fish and evacuate documents and equipment. No access was allowed again until Friday morning (8/21) when fisheries staff were allowed in briefly to care for the fish and check the conditions. There were freshly burned areas on the way in, but fire crews were on-site, and it did not look too serious. Later that day I tried to escort the fuel truck in to refill the emergency generator that had been running the plant since Thursday morning. We were denied access due to the fire flaring up again in the area. Saturday, as several staff members were evacuating their own houses, ERD staff, and Toro Petroleum managed to get fuel to the generator just in time. Fire crews continued to use the facility as a staging area and make use of our water system to fill their water trucks. Without them the the Facility would have been lost. The fire burned not only the entire ridgeline across the river, but also down to the water line ~100 feet from our electrical panels and new RAS building, as well as a large portion of the canyon wall just above the Facility, effectively surrounding it with fire (see photos below).

CARMEL RIVER LAGOON:  The lagoon mouth closed for the summer on June 16, 2020. During August, the lagoon water surface elevation (WSE) dropped from 8 to 6.7 feet (North American Vertical Datum of 1988; NAVD 88) (See graph below).

Water quality depth-profiles were conducted at five sites on August 28, 2020 while the lagoon mouth was closed, water surface elevation was 6.8 feet, and river inflow was <1 cfs. Steelhead rearing and migration conditions were generally “fair” with better conditions in the main-stem. Salinity ranged from 1.4 - 6 ppt, dissolved oxygen (DO) levels ranged from 1-10mg/l, and water temperatures were generally warm during the day, ranging from 64-75 degrees F. 

TRIBUTARIES STEELHEAD RESCUES:  Staff completed seven days of fish rescues in Cachagua Creek between mid-June and July 1, 2020 and one day in Garzas Creek on July 6. A total of 4,379 juvenile steelhead were rescued including: 4,279 young-of-the-year (YOY), 76 age 1+ fish, and 24 mortalities (0.5%).  Staff tagged 57 of the larger fish and there were two recaptured fish.

CARMEL RIVER MAINSTEM STEELHEAD RESCUES:  Mainstem rescues began on July 7, 2020. Staff has completed 25 days of fish rescues in the lower river through the end of August between the Crossroads shopping center and Valley Greens Road bridge, and one day in the CV Trail and Saddle Club reach. A total of 8,184 juvenile steelhead were rescued including: 5,852 young-of-the-year (YOY), 2,316 age 1+ fish, and 16 mortalities (0.3%).  Releases – 2,992 fish were released in the upper Carmel River (tagged 182 of the larger fish) and 5,176 fish were released at the Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility.

SLEEPY HOLLOW STEELHEAD REARING FACILITY:  Facility upgrades were completed in mid-July and the first rescued fish were brought to the facility on July 27, 2020. By the end of August, 5,098 fish had been placed in the rearing channel including: 123 large fish (age 1+ years [1+]), 669 medium sized 1+ fish, and 4,306 young-of-the-year (YOY) fish. Overall facility survival is currently 72.8%. Very hot weather and warm river water contributed to the spike in mortalities. Daily rearing channel salt treatments were performed and the CDFW pathologist was consulted.

Burned ridge on the in-road, taken from SHSRF.

Fire crews at SHSRF.

Carmel River Lagoon Plot:

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