Description: The Enhanced Delta Smelt Monitoring (EDSM) program is a comprehensive, year-round monitoring initiative that employs multiple research crews conducting concurrent trawling operations across designated strata within the San Francisco Estuary. The program specifically targets post-larval Delta Smelt from April through June using 20mm trawling gear, while Kodiak trawling gear is utilized for the remainder of the year. Need: The ongoing decline of the Delta Smelt population has underscored the critical need for continuous improvement in the data supporting our understanding of the ecological and anthropogenic factors influencing Delta Smelt population dynamics. The EDSM program plays a vital role in providing essential biological data that informs management strategies aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of water operations on this endangered species. By capturing data across nearly all life stages of Delta Smelt, including near-real-time information on juvenile and adult stages, the EDSM program offers significant conservation benefits. This data is promptly disseminated to the Smelt Working Group and other resource managers to facilitate informed decision-making during the critical entrainment season. Objectives: -Estimate the total abundance of Delta Smelt, including standard errors or confidence intervals, on a weekly to bi-weekly basis across various life stages (post-larvae, juveniles, sub-adults, adults) throughout the year. -Assess the spatial distribution of Delta Smelt at a management-relevant temporal and spatial resolution. -Provide data that supports management decisions and addresses scientific inquiries related to sampling efficiency, drivers of Delta Smelt population patterns, and other conservation and management-related topics.
The overarching AIS goal is that "Risks of aquatic invasive species invasions are substantially reduced, and their economic, ecological, and human health impacts are minimized. This goal is addressed through a series of performance and workload measures. The AIS Program provides funding for Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinators for each Region within the Service and their respective aquatic nuisance species activities. These coordinators work closely with the public and private sector to develop and implement invasive species projects. One of the primary initiatives of the program is the prevention of invasive species via boats through the "100th Meridian Initiative" (overseen by individual AIS regional coordinators). This initiative aims to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species by boats personal watercraft and other pathways. Through boat inspections and boaters assessments along the 100th meridian, partners can learn how to prevent the spread of zebra mussels and other AIS via transport of boats and personal watercraft.
The Delta Juvenile Fish Monitoring Program (DJFMP) has monitored natural-origin and hatchery-origin juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and other fish species within the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) since 1976 using a combination of midwater trawls and beach seines. Since 2000, three trawl sites and at least 58 beach seine sites have been sampled weekly or biweekly within the SFE and lower Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. The main objectives of the DJFMP are: 1. Document the long-term abundance and distribution of juvenile Chinook Salmon in the Delta. 2. Comprehensively monitor throughout the year to document the presence of all races of juvenile Chinook Salmon. 3. Intensively monitor juvenile Chinook salmon during the fall and winter months for use in managing water project operations (Delta Cross Channel gates and water export levels) on a real-time basis. 4. Document the abundance and distribution of Steelhead. 5. Document the abundance and distribution of non-salmonid species.
Tradeoffs among objectives in natural resource management can be exacerbated in altered ecosystems and when there is uncertainty in predicted management outcomes. Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and value of information (VOI) are underutilized decision tools that can assist fisheries managers in handling tradeoffs and evaluating the importance of uncertainty. We demonstrate the use of these tools using a case study in the Sacramento River, California, U.S.A., where two imperiled species with different temperature requirements, winter-run Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Green Sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), spawn and rear in the artificially cold Shasta Dam tailwater. A temperature-control device installed on Shasta Dam maintains cool water for Chinook Salmon; however, uncertainties exist related to the effects of temperatures on the spawning and rearing of both species. We consider four alternative hypotheses in models of early life-stage dynamics to evaluate the effects of alternative temperature-management strategies on Chinook Salmon and Green Sturgeon management objectives. We used VOI to quantify the increase in management performance that can be expected by resolving hypothesis-based uncertainties as a function of the weight assigned to species-specific objectives. We found the decision was hindered by uncertainty; the best performing alternative depends on which hypothesis is true, with warmer or cooler alternative management strategies recommended when weights favor Green Sturgeon or Chinook Salmon objectives, respectively. The value of reducing uncertainty was highest when Green Sturgeon was slightly favored, highlighting the interaction between scientific uncertainty and decision makers’ values. Our demonstration features MCDA and VOI as transparent, deliberative tools that can assist fisheries managers in confronting value conflicts, prioritizing resolution of uncertainty, and optimally managing aquatic ecosystems.
SacPAS serves to provide information integration services to the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and practitioners working on matters related to ESA-listed fishes. The web-based services relate fish passage to environmental conditions and provide resources for evaluating the effects of river management and environmental conditions on salmon passage and survival.
The work performed as part of this agreement includes developing, maintaining, and making accessible query tools and decision support tools to access: historical, real-time and forecasted data; data summaries and visualizations; and hindcasts, forecasts, and scenario-derived predictions from statistical and mechanistic models. More specifically, the objectives are to:
1) Maintain and extend a secondary data repository of historical, real-time, and forecasted fish, environmental, and operational data from the Sacramento River and other river systems in the Central Valley, integrated from primary, public databases.
2) Maintain and improve the data query and visualization tools and services provided through the SacPAS website (https://www.cbr.washington.edu/sacramento/) for historical, real-time, and forecasted environmental and fish data.
3) Conduct research and provide access to modeling tools for fish survival and migration, through the SacPAS website, in support of Reclamation-funded and ESA-mandated activities, especially in efforts to predict, track, and evaluate the efficacy of proposed or actual actions.
Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations in California are in decline due to the combined effects of habitat degradation, water diversions, and shifting climate regimes. This project uses archival tissues (otoliths, vertebrae) from modern and ancient spring-run Chinook Salmon to understand how shifts in migration timing and habitat use allowed salmon to cope with highly variable environmental conditions. We will learn how salmon responded to the recent drought and flood periods (2012-2020 CE), the California Gold Rush Period (~1835-1870 CE), the Little Ice Age (~1560-1780 CE), and the Megadrought Period (~1200-1410 CE). This effort will provide the insights needed for developing climate-adapted conservation actions to support salmon into the future.
The Wetland Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) Fish and Fish Habitat Monitoring project is a collaborative effort to track biological responses to tidal wetland restoration in the San Francisco Estuary. Monthly sampling is conducted across a network of benchmark, reference, and project restoration sites in the South Bay and North Bay, with the goal of evaluating how wetland restoration influences fish assemblages, habitat use, and ecological condition.
The study uses primarily otter trawls to monitor fish and macroinvertebrate communities. Standardized field methods align with those used in long-term monitoring programs to ensure comparability and data integration across regions. Environmental data, including water temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen, are collected in tandem with biological sampling to assess habitat quality and seasonal dynamics.
The program addresses WRMP Guiding Question #4: How do policies, programs, and projects to protect and restore tidal marshes affect the distribution, abundance, and health of fish and wildlife? The data support adaptive management, regulatory compliance, and science-based restoration planning by identifying key habitats, tracking restoration performance, and detecting regional patterns in species composition and abundance over time.
