Some Question Efforts to Protect Trout

OJAI —  Someone may be stealing the steelhead.

A rare bit of good news on the frequently bleak endangered species front surfaced this summer when a small school of southern steelhead trout was discovered in a pool at the Soule Park golf course, where they had apparently been stranded on their journey to the sea.

State and federal wildlife experts in July celebrated news of the fish, sighted in upper San Antonio Creek for the first time in 44 years, and promised to keep close watch on their welfare. Now, the apparent disappearance of one or more of the fish is causing anglers and environmentalists to question whether wildlife authorities were diligent enough in their efforts to protect them.

Three months ago, prospects looked good for the steelhead. Although golfers launched balls right over the pond, the fish had plenty of cool water and an abundant supply of minnows. But the pool is now clogged with algae, appears stagnant and is surrounded by egrets, which prey on fish. Raccoons and other predators may have taken a toll, too, though golf course personnel say they have seen no dead steelhead.

The final blow was apparently delivered by an unidentified fisherman.

“I saw some guy fishing there a couple of months ago,” said Carmen Avlea, a golf course groundskeeper. “I said, ‘Hey, you can’t go fishing there,’ and he just ran away. Now, I don’t see the trout anymore.”

Don Miller, the course general manager, said the fisherman left with one of the endangered fish in tow.

About 10 steelhead, some as long as 18 inches, plied the shallow pool this summer. Scientists say they probably migrated up the creek two winters ago, during high stream flows caused by El Nino rains, and got stuck when the water started drying up.

Late last week, no fish could be seen. Golf course officials say they saw two last month, but then stopped looking.

“I haven’t looked because I get so angry every time I do,” said Miller.

Protection Efforts on ‘Back Burner’

Southern California streams once teemed with steelhead, but loss of habitat over the past century reduced their numbers until the species was declared endangered in 1997.

After the recent discovery, officials with the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service said they would keep close watch over the fish, use sensors to measure stream conditions and ready steelhead salvage teams to relocate the fish if conditions threatened their survival.

They said they were going to post signs to keep people away and seek changes in fishing regulations to make the area off limits to anglers.

But none of those things happened. State and federal biologists haven’t been to the golf course in more than four weeks.

“It’s something we just made a mistake on. It’s horrible,” said Mauricio Cardenas, fisheries biologist for the state Fish and Game department. “We don’t know if the fish are gone or poached or what happened to them. This just kind of ended up on the back burner.”

The apparent loss of the fish comes at a time when local, state and federal officials are spending millions of dollars to save steelhead in Ventura County, where some of the best steelhead habitat remains.

A $2-million fish ladder was installed on a Santa Clara River dam, and it is known to have saved at least seven adult fish.

On the Ventura River, not far from the golf course, the Casitas Municipal Water District is spending $340,000 on a study showing how to design and build a fish ladder at a dam not far from the golf course. And Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, California lawmakers and local officials are searching for tens of millions of dollars to tear down Matilija Dam near Ojai, which blocks steelhead from reaching spawning grounds.

Darren Brumback, a biologist with the national fisheries service, said the trout were not relocated because their habitat was suitable when he last inspected it a month ago. He said he saw fish during that visit. But he never installed round-the-clock sensors at the pond, and wondered if state wildlife officials did.

Agencies Claim Lack of Manpower

Furthermore, the fisheries service, which is investigating the alleged poaching, has not taken any enforcement action. In a reversal of its position a few months ago, agency spokesman Mark Fergus said Thursday it is not clear if the fish were ordinary rainbow trout or steelhead, an important distinction for a successful prosecution under federal law safeguarding endangered species. Only genetic tests would conclusively establish that, and those tests were not done.

Fergus also said federal fisheries biologists had too many other issues to tend to, including keeping track of other stranded steelhead in the Los Padres National Forest, to keep close tabs on the fish at the Soule Park golf course.

“There’s no way we can possibly do surveillance on [the pool] and constantly monitor it and move the fish if it’s necessary,” Fergus said. “There’s not enough manpower or resources to deal with every pond where these fish might be.”

But steelhead advocates charged the agencies fumbled fish protection.

“Here are the last vestiges of an endangered species in Southern California that represent our heritage. It’s unfortunate and sad that the agencies are not carefully overseeing the situation and these fish have been poached,” said Mark Bergstrom, executive director of California Trout.

Mark Capelli, executive director of Friends of the Ventura River, said he was “absolutely stunned” that the federal agency would question whether the fish were steelhead. Capelli said that portion of San Antonio Creek could not normally provide enough food to support either a rainbow or a steelhead, and the only explanation for why large fish would be in the creek is because they swam in from the ocean. State and federal biologists rendered the same opinion earlier this year.

“It’s absolutely stunning they would take that position after they staked out the fish when they were first found, and then developed preliminary rescue efforts,” Capelli said. “They wouldn’t have done that if they weren’t steelhead.”

Miller said government biologists routinely called to ask about the water level in the stream. He said officials should have moved the fish because of the threats from the environment and from humans.

“I wish the government agencies had done something rather that just studying it and studying it,” Miller said. “Every week that passed was another opportunity for someone to come in and fish them out or for them to die.”

Cardenas, the state biologist, said his agency was prohibited from tampering with the fish because of its federally protected status. Other priorities prevented the two agencies from coordinating more closely, he added.

“It’s not a good situation. A lot of things have to be taken care of to find a fast-track way to get anything through this regulatory morass we have right now. Until we sort out that morass, this is only going to happen again.”

Katie Cooper is a Times Community News reporter. Gary Polakovic is a Times staff writer.