Since my last two visits with you in this column for the June 2003 and November 2003 Newsletters, our permit application for trapping, rearing, and planting coho salmon and steelhead during the 2003/2004 season was partly approved and partly rejected by the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG). They approved our trapping and rearing request for coho salmon and steelhead from the Scott Creek and San Lorenzo River watersheds. However, they rejected our request for trapping and rearing of steelhead for the Pajaro River tributaries of Corralitos and Brown’s Valley Creeks. The CDFG-stated reason for rejecting this portion of our request was that CDFG has determined that neither we (CDFG) nor NOAA-Fisheries (NMFS) have sufficient scientific information on the steelhead populations of Corralitos and Brown’s Valley Creeks to determine whether it is prudent to permit you (MBSTP) to collect fish from those depressed runs for propagation this year.

During many occasions over recent years we have discussed stream monitoring with CDFG & NMFS as a method of obtaining fish population information for these streams, as well as others in the Central Coast Region. Increased monitoring was proposed in order to better address the issue of whether or not restoration and/or augmentation would be prudent to conduct for specific streams and watersheds. In general, this concept was considered to be a positive approach, but it is well known that trouble lurks in the details. The real-world realities are as follows:

1. There are many biologists in NMFS, CDFG, and others in the scientific community who support our goals and activities to augment steelhead populations in various streams in the Central Coast Region depending upon information obtained from stream surveys and observations. There are, however, some biologists from these groups who do not support our steelhead augmentation goals and activities for various reasons and philosophies.

2. CDFG has undergone severe budget cuts over the past few years. This economic dilemma puts them in position of not being able to apply the necessary level of human resources to obtain adequate data to satisfy their sufficient scientific information criteria in order to enable any future change to be made in their present position.

3. Early this year I discovered that MBSTP would need to obtain a special permit from CDFG in order for us to perform such stream monitoring activities in the necessary degree of detail. The process for obtaining such a permit is very cumbersome, and we believe that we do not have the human and financial resources necessary to perform such detailed monitoring even if we did have the special permit. In reality, we have concluded that, within the confines our present resources, we (MBSTP) could not conduct the level of monitoring necessary to satisfy the sufficient scientific information criteria on other streams in the Central Coast Region that may well be in need of salmonid restoration and/or augmentation. It is my opinion that this dilemma will continue to exist for many years into the future unless a new regulatory position is established and implemented.

It is also my opinion that CDFG & NMFS will continue to approve our annual trapping and rearing permits for coho salmon and steelhead from the Scott Creek and San Lorenzo River Watersheds for the foreseeable future.

The two major construction projects that I discussed in the November 2003 Newsletter are nearing completion at our Kingfisher Flat rearing facility. It is anticipated that the Raceways Reconstruction Project (including roof repairs) will be completed in August, and the Coho Captive Rearing Brood-stock Facility Project will be completed in June of 2004. We are in the initial stages of evaluating the technical bid information pertaining to the replacement of our Berry Creek water sand filters. Costs for this replacement will be covered by a previously approved grant from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

All of the great organizations, groups, businesses, and individuals who continue to support our salmonid programs are keeping us going and alive. Our continuing thanks to The David & Lucile Packard Foundation; Fish & Game Advisory Commissions of Monterey, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties; commercial Salmon Stamp Committee; Scott Creek Watershed Council; Santa Cruz Port District; Moss Landing Harbor District; and all of you who continue to provide your extremely essential support of our salmon and steelhead restoration mission.

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This past September we began the repair, replacement, & reconstruction project of the hatchery raceway shade cloth, predation netting, and support structure. The 1998 storm damage and age had taken its toll on the facility. At the same time we began construction of the new National Marine Fisheries Service funded Coho Captive Brood stock facility. The last nine months have been challenging trying to balance fish culture operations and all the disturbance caused by the construction activities, and the end appears to be forthcoming. Also, at the end of January, Al Smith and myself had to fly back to Salt Lake City to take delivery of our new four wheel drive diesel fish planting truck with tow five hundred gallon fish hauling tanks. We thank the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for funding this much needed tool for the safe and expedient delivery of the Coho and Steelhead to their rivers and streams of origin. The last two weeks of March 2004, sixteen trips were made with the new truck and ours and Fish & Games old trailers of 400 gallon capacity. This year we planted 53,752 San Lorenzo River Steelhead from Henry Cowell Park up to waterman’s gap and all of the main tributaries. We also planted 3,770 Scotts Creek Steelhead into the watershed.
This past winter’s rains were again found to be all or nothing. Early rains were non-existent, and the first major storm produced 5 inches of rain overnight on December 29th & 30th which finally breached the sand bar at the mouth of Scotts Creek. However, the resultant high water flows also buried the new fish trap and weir being operated by NOAA Fisheries. The NMFS scientists for stream fish population monitoring studies use the new weir to provide us with spawning adults. Rocks and debris had collapsed the wier panels which count not be uncovered until January 4th and the creek remained muddy till January 7th when NMFS and Project divers and volunteers were able to get into the creek and look for returning adult Coho. We were anticipating a run of early young precocious Coho males and a few females from the accelerated growth program to replace missing year classes. Over the next week while searching the creek almost 100 coho were observed, five were females in the act of spawning and an additional 3 carcasses and 2 spent females were found, so at least 10 female fish spawned in the creek. Nine wild males were collected. The one and only three year old male and eight precocious two year olds were taken. The sperm was saved for future years since no adult females were taken to the hatchery and no Coho were hatched at the hatchery this year. Although the sperm has been cryopreserved for future use, two late developing precocial females were found in the Seawater Captive Brood Stock Facility at NMFS Long Marine Lab. With our new ultra-sound equipment, we have identified and brought them to the hatchery and hopefully they will fully mature soon.

The new fish trap & weir caught just over 300 steelhead this year the NMFS estimate of captures and escapes over the weir for a total population run of over 500 adult steelhead this year. Males and females were about equal. This year we spawned only 2 steelhead females from Scotts Creek to support NMFS growth rate and early development studies.

San Lorenzo River Steelhead trapping was not permitted until the first week of February, when the City of Santa Cruz inflated the Felton Dam. A total of a dozen females were collected and spawned at the hatchery of the permitted 15 females. We were unable to collect the three remaining females due to several vandalism incidents to the Felton dam bladder. Anticipated steelhead production this year is 8,000 Scotts Creek Fish and 52,000 San Lorenzo River fish.

I would like to thank all of the numerous volunteers who have donated their time and energy to our fish cultural and construction activities over the past year and to all of the individuals who have donated their hard earned dollars. Without you this project could not survive. Again, thank you!!

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Despite the recent challenges, we did it!! Yes, with lots of help, we managed to successfully deliver steelhead eggs to nearly all required STEP "certified" classes so they could participate in this year's STEP incubation activities.

It didn't look so good at the beginning of April, though. Some of us were about to come "unglued." First, we recognized, going into April, that we, along with California State Fish and Game, had just processed, in March, a large number of class permits for "certified" classes, totaling 107 classes. These classes were asking to participate in this year's STEP incubation activities and they were located within a geographical area of six counties. It was the largest number of class-permits to be processed. So, going into the month of May, which is normal time for eggs to be available, we were facing a "tall (logistics) order." Several members helped with the permit-signing routine of all 107 applications before the papers were sent to California Fish and Game for final signature.

Then, at the beginning of April, other challenges and demands appeared. Mother Nature did her part with warmer weather that led to an earlier maturation and availability time for the eggs. About the same time as the egg availability, we faced many, varied school Spring Break vacations. Then, too, some geographical areas just couldn't provide required volunteer delivery people. Also, we didn't have the opportunity, this year, to use Scotts Creek eggs, as well as the San Lorenzo eggs, giving us less flexibility with our deliveries.

Just before things were about to come apart, a number of great people "stepped up" and made it happen. Prominent from San JoseFlycasters and the Project were Bruce Keniston, Mondy Lariz, and Keith Nelson. Also, at the forefront was Sandy Derby and her staff from the Discovery Museum. Bruce Keniston did much of the bagging of eggs. Dave Streig, Manager of the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project worked especially hard to make things happen.So, in a scheduled three days of bagging and delivering eggs, all within two weeks, all required eggs were delivered. It was a "grand finale" and relief.

During the time of this preparation, some of the chillers did not work and/or were not available in time. So there was more "panic" and action. Bob Daves had to collect a chiller at one school and deliver it to another. Bruce Keniston and Hugh Miller replaced a chiller at Roger Middle School because of a faulty thermostat. Keith Nelson had to drive to Gilroy to replace another faulty chiller.

Now, at this time, at the beginning of May, we are getting reports from STEP teachers about their eggs hatching and fry moving to the top of the aquarium water. Also, there's emails and phone inquiries going on about the usual hatch times expected, available release areas along the San Lorenzo River and necessary permits available. Next, we foresee, there will be many interesting letters coming, following the fieldtrips, mostly from the STEP students, expressing their appreciation and interest in STEP.

STEP Fieldtrips, May 27 Report. Most of the STEP reports received at this time indicate that the Releases and/or Fieldtrips went very well this year. We recognize that there are a few more releases to be made, and following all releases, expected very soon, we can, then, make our final report regarding the number of classes participating and the percentage of fry released. Last year, our tally for the number of fry released versus the number of eggs distributed was at a 95% median figure. The year before, we tallied a 98% median figure for the fry released. We thank our STEP teachers for this commendable record.

STEP Concern. There are indications that we may not be permitted steelhead eggs for our STEP incubation activities in the future. Authorities feel that, rather, we should be permitted Rainbow Trout Eggs for STEP, instead, with the release of resulting fry into a reservoir. The Project Board will be working with permitting authorities regarding this issue.

STEP Help. If you are interested in helping this year or next year with fieldtrips... or next year with a variety of STEP activities, get in touch with Hugh Miller, email address HMiller334@aol.com.

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As many of you know, the Salmon Ecology team at the Santa Cruz NOAA Fisheries Laboratory began conducting research on Scott's Creek salmonids in January 2002. The initial focus of the research was to (1) determine the range of life history strategies of salmonids in the watershed, and (2) evaluate the effects of the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project hatchery-produced fish on the wild populations. This work was conducted primarily by myself and two research technicians- Chad Hanson and Morgan Bond, under the direction of our supervisor Bruce MacFarlane and in collaboration with the lab geneticist Carlos Garza. It didn't take long to realize the value of the Scott Creek watershed as a phenomenal outdoor research laboratory for the study of central California salmon and steelhead. Since that time many members of the Salmon Ecology team at Santa Cruz have started focusing on Scott Creek for the study of important questions in salmon biology. We have funded Chad and Morgan to enter graduate school at UCSC, where they are pursuing research questions related to the stream and estuarine ecology of Scott Creek fish. Ellen Freund joined our
program in January 2003 and is conducting comparative physiological ecology studies of salmonids in Scott Creek estuary and other coastal California estuaries. Another of our fishery biologists, Arnold Amman, has taken on a project monitoring the constantly changing environmental characteristics of the Scott Creek estuary as it fills and drains throughout the year. And Sue Sogard, our branch chief, is working with us on a project comparing development of juvenile steelhead and rainbow trout hybrids.

As you can imagine a complete report of all these projects would be very long, so I will provide just some highlights of our findings to date. The results from our hatchery study indicate there was no competition between hatchery and wild fish at the juvenile stages and that adult hatchery fish behave like and regularly spawn with wild fish. In short the hatchery is doing a great job and we have submitted detailed findings of this study as a paper to the Journal of Fish Biology. In addition we have been studying growth of juvenile fish in various habitats and have found that fish grow much faster in the estuary than in the upper reaches of the watershed. Work by Morgan has led us to speculate that the estuarine growth period for juvenile steelhead may be critical to their ocean survival. Genetic analysis of steelhead from throughout the watershed including resident steelhead (non-migrating rainbow trout) from above Big Creek falls had revealed genetic differences between steelhead that go to sea and those that choose to spend their entire life in the stream. An anecdote to this- we have resighted a couple fish that were tagged ABOVE Big Creek falls in June 2003 in the lower watershed, just upstream of the estuary during April 2004. Apparently these fish came over the falls and may be heading out to sea. We are now trying to quantify how often this happens. As many of you know, we installed an adult weir fish trap along the Scott Creek mainstem between the Queseria and Little Creek tributaries last fall to count, tag and sample the returning adults. While a bunch of fish got by the weir during winter storms, we were still able to catch over 100 coho and 340 steelhead this year. We estimate that there may have been as many as 450 adult steelhead spawning this year. Next year we hope to see that many steelhead and potentially similar numbers of coho as well. Finally much of this research was presented to a panel of top ranked fisheries biologists last fall as part of an independent review of NOAA Fisheries research activities. Our work in Scott Creek received a great deal of attention and the panel was so impressed, they asked for a tour of the watershed and hatchery. After this, they urged us to keep up our Scott Creek research efforts and our great relationship with MBSTP. Needless to say, with your support, we hope to continue conducting studies there for many years to come.
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This summer and fall, Dave Parker of Harbor Press and I are again hosting marlin, tuna, and dorado fishing adventures at Hotel Buena Vista in East Cape, Baja CA. For those of you that have fished the East Cape in the past, you know the quality of fishing that can be present during the summer and fall months. This is Dave’s eighth year and the fifth year for me. Last year’s fishing was a great success. Refer to last November’s Newsletter for all the details of the quality fishing. The hotel is a big sponsor of our hatchery and we appreciate their support.

Our first trip is August 22nd thru August 26th. We have booked excellent rooms and boats at very special prices. We also will be fishing again October 17th thru October 22nd. For those of you that have never fished in Baja this is good chance to get your feet wet. If you do not have tackle, the hotel will rent it to you. The hotel offers many other extras including a whirlpool spa heated from local hot springs. The food is excellent and they have a full service bar. If you have any questions, please contact Dave Parker at 831-475-3355 or Larry Wolf at 831-688-4257.

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