Prospect Island Fish Rescue Still In Progress

Prospect Island Fish Rescue Still In Progress

by Dan Bacher

I went to the fish rescue at Prospect Island today at 10:30 a.m. DFG and Bureau of Reclamation staff and at least one volunteer transported electro shocked fish from the remaining water on Prospect into ice chests. They then loaded the ice chests onto a truck and released the fish into Miner Slough.

The vast majority of fish were carp, but a few native Sacramento splittail and Sacramento blackfish were rescued. By 4:40 p.m. "a few hundred" fish had been rescued, according to Louis Moore, Bureau of Reclamation spokesman. At this time, the fish rescue is in full swing and will continue until the rest of the remaining fish are removed from the drying pool on the island.

The fish rescued organized by Bob McDaris, Jeff Nash and other volunteers last November was very successful, as evidenced by the few fish still remaining on the island. Unfortunately, thousands and thousands of striped bass, blackfish, splittail, bluegill and black bass died before the volunteers were able to rescue them last year.

Moore said today was chosen for the rescue, since agency staff worried that fish would start dying if they delayed it because of rising water temperatures. I will update you here on the final outcome of today's fish rescue.