Just this once, if your fishing buddy says he hooked “a real submarine” and that “he couldn’t stop it,” he might be telling the truth (might).

From the Aquafornia blog:

If you reel in a small sub instead of a rainbow trout from the Sacramento River this summer, don’t call Homeland Security. It belongs to a team of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley trying to learn more about the river currents in the delta.

This is definitely a bad news/good news thing; Salmon runs are failing, but now they’re stocking the Sac with submarines.Technorati Tags: sacramento river, fly fishing, submarine

Federal judge Oliver Wanger today tossed out a controversial water plan that would have allowed more pumping of water from the imperiled California Delta at the expense of five species of protected chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Recreational fishing, commercial fishing and conservation groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe celebrated the ruling as a victory for the millions of Californians who depend on the delta for drinking water, fishing jobs and agriculture. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast – and increased state and federal exports to subsidized agribusiness and southern California in recent years are a key factor in the collapse of Sacramento River salmon.

In his opinion Judge Oliver W. Wanger relied on the National Marine Fisheries Services’ (NMFS) own finding that diverting water from the bay-delta was killing huge numbers of salmon. He said, “This morbid projection is inconsistent, if not irreconcilable” with the agency’s opinion that the project operations did not jeopardize the survival of the fish. He also faulted the agency for failing to analyze the effects of global warming on the fish, calling that failure “arbitrary and capricious.”

"How extirpation of approaching one-third of the species affected by Project operations does not constitute jeopardy is not explained," said Wanger. "NMFS’s no jeopardy conclusion for the Project operations’ effects on the spring-run Chinook is expressly contradicted by underlying data and opinions of the BiOp."

More Bad News for Fishermen

The ocean fishing season for salmon has already been killed off by extremely low returns, and it looks like a zero-take policy will apply to river fisheries too:

The Commission will decide on whether or not to close salmon season on Central Valley rivers at its meeting in Monterey on May 9. However, it is extremely likely that the Commission will close salmon fishing on the Sacramento, American, Feather, San Joaquin and other rivers in conformance with the PFMC’s "zero take" allowance for the dwindling salmon population.

An Underground Rant

Here’s the scenario; salmon populations in the Sacramento River are collapsing (several species, including the stalwart Chinook run), steelhead are hurting, Delta Smelt and Longfin Smelt are on the brink of extinction, and they want to export more water from the Delta?

Here’s a thought: maybe it’s time California learned to live within its water budget.

Redding would close the Sacramento River through the Cypress Avenue Bridge construction trestle to all boating traffic when flows go above 10,000 cubic feet per second — or generally, during summer — should the city follow recommendations from an appointed committee.

Motorboats, kayaks, rowboats, drift boats and motorized rafts could follow the river beneath the bridge whenever flows are lower under the recommendations that were hashed out at a meeting Wednesday and are still in draft form.

I don’t see a clear reference to personal pontoon boats — the kind you often see floating the Lower Sacramento River — and the next paragraph doesn’t really make it any clearer:

The city would close the bridge passage to people in canoes, sailboats, inner tubes, nonmotorized rafts, air mattresses, sailboards and pool toys until construction is complete in late 2010, under the proposed recommendations.

Does a pontoon boat qualify as a drift boat or a non-motorized raft? And why would you close the river to a guide who uses a raft instead of a drift boat? Finally, does the Redding City Council actually have the authority to close the Sacramento River? I’ll bet not.

Closing the Lower Sacramento River at the Cypress would effective cut the most common daylong float in half, and I suspect we’ll see river guides getting a bit more creative come summer.

I put in a call to the Redding Fly Shop’s Michael Caranci, who serves on the citizen committee making the recommendation, and hope to get a clarification soon.

UPDATE: I spoke to Duane at the Redding Fly Shop, who says it’s all up in the air, but that the committee’s intent was to allows passage (below summer flows) to any craft with oars. That includes whitewater rafts, pontoon boats and kayaks (though they use paddles). Hopefully, the language will be made more specific before the Redding City Council votes on it.

UPDATE #2: A Web site for Personal Injury lawyers (huh?) weighs in on bridge closure. 

See you on the river (dodging bridge piers), Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: sacramento river,lower sacramento river,cypress bridge repair,cypress bridge project,river closure