ITEM:		INFORMATIONAL ITEM/STAFF REPORT
20.	CARMEL RIVER FISHERY REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 2021
Meeting Date:			March 15, 2021	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:  Following the only large storm to date of the rainy season in late January, dry weather returned in February. By month’s end, Los Padres Reservoir was barely spilling, and river flows had dropped to 30 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs). Migration conditions for both upstream adults and downstream juveniles degraded from excellent in early February to poor by the end of the month.

January’s mean daily streamflow at the Sleepy Hollow Weir decreased from 143 to 30 cfs (monthly mean 55.0 cfs) resulting in 3,060 acre-feet (AF) of runoff while the Highway 1 gage decreased from 154 to 27 cfs (monthly mean 55 cfs) resulting in 3,060 AF of runoff.

There were 0.41 inches of rainfall in February as recorded at the San Clemente gauge. The rainfall total for WY 2021 (which started on October 1, 2020) is 9.85 inches, or 64% of the long-term year-to-date average of 15.46 inches. 

CARMEL RIVER LAGOON:  The lagoon opened January 26, 2021. During February, the lagoon water surface elevation (WSE) rose and fell several times as the low river flow was insufficient to keep the sandbar open. The lagoon filled twice before breaching (the second time in early March) raising the WSE from approximately 3.5 to 11.8 feet and backwatering the river to the HW1 reach (North American Vertical Datum of 1988; NAVD 88) (See graph below).

Water quality depth-profiles were conducted at five sites on February 19, 2021 while the lagoon mouth was closed with tidal overwash, water surface elevation was 5.5 feet, and river inflow was 36 cfs. Steelhead rearing conditions were generally “good”. Salinity ranged from 1 - 22 ppt, dissolved oxygen (DO) levels were variable ranging from 5 – 11 mg/l, and water temperatures were cool, ranging from 50 - 56 degrees F.

RESISTANCE BOARD WEIR:  As part of the District’s steelhead life cycle monitoring program, FishBio Consulting was hired to design and install a fish weir in the lower river to temporarily trap migrating adult steelhead for tagging and measurement. The installation was completed in January and after repairing minor damage to the weir from the high flows was fully operational the first week of February as the adult migration began.

The first fish were captured on February 3, 2021 and as of February 28th 50 adult, ocean-run steelhead had been captured, with 36 of those being PIT tagged. There was one recaptured fish that had been tagged in 2019.

Carmel River Lagoon Plot:

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