Mission Statement

The Fishery Foundation of California is a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve fishery resources in the State of California. The Foundation's goal is to provide services that benefit fishing communities, populations and habitats so that commercial and sport fishermen will have improved opportunities to catch fish in California. The Foundation sprang from United Anglers of California in 1986. Over the past decade the goal has been to help improve fishery resources including salmon, steelhead, striped bass, and other fisheries of California including those of coastal waters, the San Francisco Bay Estuary and Central Valley and Sierra rivers. The Foundation has been a partner to the California Department of Fish and Game in improving fish populations through improved fish passages at barriers to migration, better habitat, and increased survival of fish salvaged at water intake screens or stocked from hatcheries.

The Future

The Foundation intends to expand on these initial efforts (listed below) to further enhance and restore fishery resources in California.

Aquaculture

The Foundation intends to continue the pen-rearing program already underway. These include pen rearing of striped bass in San Luis Reservoir. The Foundation is seeking other opportunities to rear fish in pens or ponds for release into California waters to enhance fishery resources.

Fish Acclimation

The Foundation is seeking to modify our past pen-rearing program in the Bay to pen acclimate salvaged fish in the estuary near Pittsburg and Antioch. Pen acclimation of salvaged fish is one of many means being considered by the California Department of Water Resources and the US Bureau of Reclamation to improve survival of fish collected at the fish facilities at the South Delta pumping plants. Millions of native and non-native fish living in or passing through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are salvaged each year at the fish screening facilities of the pumping plants and trucked to release sites in the Delta near Sherman Island. The Foundation is seeking grants from the Striped Bass Stamp Program, CALFED, the Four Pumps Program (State Pumping Plant Mitigation Program), and Tracy Mitigation Program (Federal Pumping Plant Program) to acclimate salvaged fish in pens for up to 24 hours to improve survival. Such a program will improve survival of striped bass, black bass, salmon, and steelhead, as well as many other species including threatened delta smelt and splittail that are collected at fish salvage facilities.

Fishery Research and Management

The Foundation is seeking to expand its fishery research program in the Bay-Delta from Kimball Island to other estuarine habitats including Chipps Island. Foundation staff will work closely with the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) whose multi-agency and multi-disciplinary programs are geared to fish habitat restoration.The Foundation is seeking expansion of services into fishery management activities including the development and implementation of Fishery Management Plans. Fishery Management Plans are developed for specific water bodies such as lakes, reservoirs, or streams. Fishery Management will serve as a means of developing interdisciplinary programs and projects that employ combinations of our basic five service types.

Fish Habitat - Restoration and Long-Term Maintenance

The Foundation is seeking other opportunities to restore fish habitat in San Francisco Bay and Delta, as well as in Central Valley rivers and streams. The Foundation hopes to develop strategic partnerships with habitat restoration organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Cal-Trout, Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, California Waterfowl Association, Audubon Society, and Wildlands Inc. In the Bay-Delta there are many opportunities to open leveed lands to tidal action to enhance tidal fish habitat. The Foundation will continue working with the DWR Suisun Marsh Program, who has many potential projects. In Central Valley rivers and floodplains there are many opportunities to improve fish habitat with many of the above mentioned organizations. Long-term maintenance of fisheries habitat for many of these organizations may be an important function of the Foundation in the future. As restoration takes place throughout the Bay-Delta and Central Valley, most project will require some degree of long-term maintenance to maintain value of the habitat for fish.

Cosumnes River Project

On the Cosumnes River in addition to building a fish ladder at Granlees Dam, the Foundation will soon be working on passage problems at other diversions dams. There may also be an opportunity to expand passage upstream of Latrobe Falls, a natural barrier to salmon. Resolving passage problems is just one problem to resolve in restoring the salmon run on the Cosumnes so that it once again can contribute to ocean and inland harvests. .

Calaveras River Project

The Foundation is working with the DWR Fish Passage Program and CVPIA Anadromous Fish Restoration Program in developing solutions to several problem locations on the Calaveras River. The Foundation is proposing to construct a temporary fish ladder at the Bellota Weir, a water supply diversion for the City of Stockton. In addition, the Foundation has proposed an interim trap-and-haul project to help salmon and steelhead negotiate the many obstacles on the river while permanent solutions to passage problems are developed.

Photos

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