Fish and Game agrees to revise rules on invasive fish

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

Capital Press

A group of irrigators has reached a ceasefire agreement with the California Department of Fish and Game in a legal dispute over striped bass.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and several irrigation districts filed a legal complaint in 2008, claiming the state agency's management of striped bass violated the Endangered Species Act.

According to the complaint, the striped bass is an invasive species that consumes threatened and endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, such as juvenile salmon, steelhead and smelt.

When striped bass prey upon listed fish, their populations decline and irrigators are more likely to encounter water delivery curtailments intended to protect the species, the complaint said.

As part of a settlement recently approved by a federal judge, the California Department of Fish and Game has agreed to revise its fishing regulations for the striped bass to reduce its consumption of listed species.

The new rules would likely relax restrictions on the size and number of striped bass that can be legally caught by fishermen.

The agency will develop the revisions in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service and set aside $1 million "to support research projects regarding predation on listed species in the Delta."

The irrigators will have the opportunity to weigh in on the revisions and accept or reject the agency's proposal. If they turn it down, the litigation will resume.

If the agency doesn't take final action on the proposal in a year, the plaintiffs can ask the court to restart the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger approved the settlement over the objections of state water agencies and fisherman groups that intervened in the case.

These intervenors claimed the settlement runs counter to a federal statute that encourages robust populations of striped bass.

Wanger ruled that the statute -- the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, or CVPIA -- imposes requirements on the federal Interior Department, not the California Department of Fish and Game.

The settlement itself doesn't call for harm to the striped bass, and the intervenors can always challenge the final regulations based on alleged violations of CVPIA, he said.

Wanger also rejected the allegation that the settlement process was unfair because intervenors weren't included in the discussion until the deal was already drafted.

The intervenors will have plenty of chances to give their input before any final regulatory decision is made, he said.