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Environmental Issues in California
Loss of California Native Fish



Factors affecting the fish:  Salt and Fresh-water fish native to California are making a decline into becoming extinct.  The California Drought has had effects on our waters because of the long hot days of over 100 degree weather has raised temperatures from 50 degrees to over 60 degrees; making it impossible for Salmon eggs to survive.  In a 2014 study of the waters, only 5% of the eggs survived the temperatures; 82% are likely to become extinct.

SOS Fish in Hot Water is a video that explores the climate change changing the temperatures of salt and fresh-water fish in California.

The Loss of Native Fish
Top 20 native California fish most likely to become extinct within 50-100 years:

·  Klamath Mountains Province summer steelhead

·  McCloud River redband trout

·  Unarmored threespine stickleback*

·  Shay Creek stickleback

·  Delta smelt*

·  Long Valley speckled dace

·  Central Valley late fall Chinook salmon

·  Kern River rainbow trout

·  Shoshone pupfish

·  Razorback sucker*

·  Upper Klamath-Trinity spring Chinook salmon

·  Southern steelhead*

·  Clear Lake hitch

·  Owens speckled dace

·  Northern California coast summer steelhead

·  Amargosa Canyon speckled dace

·  Central coast coho salmon*

·  Southern Oregon Northern California coast coho salmon*

·  Modoc sucker*

·  Pink salmon

(* being the most vulnerable)


Some ways we can help:

1. Protecting and restoring the places that matter the most.

2. Making donations to water resource foundations.

3. Recycle and buy sustainable products.

4. Do not buy plastic products.

5. Get in touch with your fish and game department.

6. Don't buy products from companies that are known, polluters.

7. Blackout the black market.

8. Volunteer your time to protect the water areas around your communities.

9. Never dump chemicals or pharmaceuticals down toilets, storm drains, into streams or lakes.

10. Educate family members and Friends.

There are numerous ways to help!!!
To reverse the trend toward extinction, the report suggests prioritizing protection and restoration efforts in three general areas:
  1. Protecting the most productive river ecosystems remaining in California, such as the Smith and Eel rivers. These strongholds, among others, have the capacity to support diversity and abundance because they retain high-quality habitat and are not heavily influenced by hatcheries, supporting the persistence of wild fish.
  2. Increasing focus on source waters will keep more water in streams and reduce stress on fish during drought, buffering the effects of climate change. Sierra meadow restoration, springs protection, and progressive groundwater management all contribute to this effort.
  3. Restoring function to once productive—but now highly altered—habitats can greatly improve rearing conditions for juvenile fish, especially floodplains, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and spring-fed rivers.
Additionally, the report identifies three science-based strategies to support a return to abundance for California’s native salmonids:
  1. First, focus on opportunities to mimic natural processes within altered landscapes. For example, off-season farmland can mimic traditional floodplains and support rapid growth of juvenile salmon.
  2. Second, prioritize improving fish passage to historical spawning and rearing grounds that have been cut off over time.
  3. And pursue strategies that increase genetic diversity of wild fish.
“The health of our native fish is a reflection of the health of our rivers and streams, declining fish populations indicate degraded waters, which threaten the health and economic well-being of all Californians. We know we are not going to turn back the clock to a time before rivers were dammed or otherwise altered for human benefit… Using the best available science, we can make landscape-level changes that will allow both people and fish to thrive in California.” -Curtis Knight, Executive Director of CalTrout.
Methods of Activism
A great approach to preserving our marine wildlife is by improving our own water management system. California dams can be found up and down the state. Dams are constructed for specific purposes such as irrigation, hydropower, inland navigation and flood control. Large dams also carry environmental consequences that can impact the biological, chemical and physical properties of the river’s environment. The dam’s wall blocks fish migrations in some cases separating a species completely. Our fish are not just food but play a vital role in our rivers’ ecosystem. Disturbing the natural process can cause what I would refer to as environmental deficiencies, similar to how the human body responds when deficient in a certain vitamin or mineral. So, what can you do as an activist for California’s fish population? Below are a few tips.
1.     Let your voice be heard by writing letters to government officials, attend or speak at community meetings.
2.     Become familiar with your local watershed, its major creeks, rivers and its local fish.
3.     Find out if your city has water policies protecting watershed health and promoting water conservation, caps on groundwater pumping and monitoring for non-point-source pollutants such as agricultural and contaminated urban runoff.
4.     Start a letter-writing campaign to authorities who regulate large dams in your area, urging them to operate dams so that flows downstream of dams mimic natural river flows.
5.     Join or organize a local stream restoration effort by decommissioning old dams. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimate that 70% of the riparian habitat nationwide has been lost or altered.
6.     VOTE!
·      Is Proposition 3 is the wrong water bond for California? Vote yes or no?
Prop 3 authorizes bonds (8.9 billion) to fund projects for water supply and quality, watershed fish, wildlife water conveyance and groundwater sustainability and storage initiative statute.
YES = The state could sell 8.9 billion in general obligation bonds to fund various water and environmental projects.
NO = The state could not sell 8.9 billion in general obligation bonds to fund various water and environmental projects.
Pro argument: It claims it will secure safe, reliable and clean water for California. It provides safe drinking water, drought protection and repairs unsafe dams.
Con argument: It gives money to a lot of different organizations, but it will not produce one drop of new, usable water. Interest payment on the bonds will double the amount that has to be repaid to bond holders…seriously vote NO!
Watch video below:
Relating this topic to our readings
According to the video, Pipedreams, the woman expressed how important water source was to her. She was concerned about the pipeline bursting and water being contaminated, for it is the source to her and her animals, kind of like the circle of life. Water has shaped our lives in many aspects: growing our crops, generating power, and sustaining life. With that being said, it's never been more important to keep those resources clean. Clean water is essential for recreation, hydration, and recreation.

In today's time, we are going through global warming. It is worth the fight to spread awareness to keep these water sources clean. Just to sum up the reading, " The Inside Story of how the Keystone Fight was Won," the fight showed that activists can take on the fossil fuel economy and win.



Work Cited
Flath, Camden. “Six Ways to Save California's Trout and Salmon.” Futurity, 22 May 2017, www.futurity.org/california-fish-extinction-1437172/.
Kerlin, Kat. “College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.” Climate Change Threatens Extinction for 82 Percent of California Native Fish, 5 June 2013, caes.ucdavis.edu/news/articles/2013/06/climate-change-threatens-extinction-for-82-percent-of-california-native-fish.

CalTroutMedia. “SOS Fish in Hot Water.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Aug. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0YRWeUKMJM&frags=pl,wn.


The inside story of how the Keystone fight was won | Gristhttps://grist.org/climate-energy/the-inside-story-of-how-the-keystone-fight-was-won/
Giovanni Valladares
Cara Gonzales
Hans Francisco
Magdalena Arciniega

Angelos Williams

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