Steelhead Spawn in Alameda Creek, First Time Since the 1960's!

To the Alameda Creek Alliance e-mail list:
 

.........................................................................................

 

First Steelhead Spawning in Watershed Since 1960s?

 

The pair of radio tagged steelhead trout that were given a helping hand on February 26th past the BART weir in lower Alameda Creek have paired up and made their way together into Stonybrook Creek in Niles Canyon, where they were observed traveling together and exhibiting spawning behavior for two days in early March. This marks the first time that adult steelhead have attempted to spawn in suitable trout habitat in the Alameda Creek watershed since the early to mid 1960s, a significant milestone in our effort to restore steelhead and salmon to Alameda Creek.

 

Bonnie (a female steelhead measuring 27 inches long and weighing 8.5 pounds) and Clyde (a male 28 inches and 8 pounds) were initially observed in the Alameda Creek flood control channel in Fremont on February 25th, attempting to jump the BART weir. They were netted by Alameda Creek Alliance volunteers, East Bay Regional Park District biologists, and Alameda County staff operating under state and federal permits on February 26th, fitted with radio tags and moved upstream into Niles Canyon . Both fish are currently holding together in a pool in the creek and could attempt to spawn again - they are being monitored daily via the radio tags.

 

Read the press release about the historic steelhead pair.

Awesome - that's great stuff.  Thank you for sharing this.   

That's so cool!  Pretty amazing after what...40-50 years?
And somehow rather romantic...
Nice to hear a little good news for a change, no matter how small.

Totally awesome but just how does that work?  Obviously I understand the spawning part but after 48 years, how is this possible?  I thought salmonids spawn in the river where born.  Clearly they weren't born in that creek, so what am I missing.  Thanks for any and all info.

Michael

Nature has built-in fixes...  Fish are known to stray from adjacent watersheds and spawn elsewhere at times.  Or this could've been a case of planters/small hatchery operation.

  I hope some lowlife poacher doesn't spot the fish and take one or both of them!

Troy

  I hope some lowlife poacher doesn't spot the fish and take one or both of them!

Troy

unfortunately, I believe that happens all the time in urbanized watersheds.  Many reported homeless doing exactly that.

Great for alameda creek.  Some serious work is paying off.

Before all the building took place, Alameda Creek was a booming Steelhead fishery. That was in the 1920's and I read a book about it when I was a lot younger. My friend actually hooked one once when we were fishing in there; again a long time ago.

If the water district would just leave it alone and keep from putting that dam across it every year, it will agin become a great fishery. That and break down the Calaveras Dam and let the landlocked ones out of that reservior, but that is another story.

I've seen that big rubber dam, so is it removed for half the year?  It doesn't seem like it does anything (unlike the calaveras dam, which is due to be improved soon).

Several of my neighbors here in Sunol are having trouble getting building permits for small things because of the proximity of the creek, I imagine steelhead returning will make that worse. It's lead to some degree of permit scoffing, particularly with septic systems.  The lot next door doesn't have anything on it, but when they changed the septic system rules the owner put in a septic system to avoid having to get the new type when he does build.  The new ones have to be inspected and re-certified yearly like getting your car smogged.  The locals are pretty upset about allowing inspectors in to demand repairs and upgrades.  I'm glad I'm grandfathered in with a new system of the old type.

I have never seen the rubber dam deflated.  I'm under the impression the fish are released up past the rubber dam after being rounded up at the BART weir.

I have seen pics from the days before the Army corps of engineers messed up the creek...  huge stringers of fish long as my arm.  And of course before that the Ohlone indians lived right in my hood, and of course they fished there.  My neighbor found a bunch of arrowheads when he did some landscaping...  must have been a camp.

What I wouldn't give to see what it was like back then!

 

Here's a 48 incher that was left high and dry below the BART weir when water flow was shut off in '97.

Nice, huh?

More pics here:[url][http://www.alamedacreek.org/Historical%20photos/recent%20fish%20documentation/Recent%20fish%20documentation.htm/url]

I read a bit on those pages and the rubber dams are there to increase the water level so that the water can run into quarry lake park's lakes.  These lakes provide fishing opportunities and also provide fresh water to the aquifer so that salt water doesn't percolate inland due to people using wells in the east bay.  Perhaps it'd be better to have a pipe run a mile or two upstream to get water to the quarry lakes rather than use the rubber dam.

I kind of doubt they'll ever establish runs of anything in alameda creek that aren't 'threatened' or 'endangered', so fishermen don't stand to benefit beyond the alameda creek kings that would be caught in the ocean.  Perhaps one could make the argument that alameda creek kings of yore are extinct, and hence new ones that move in are just strays from the central valley, which isn't endangered, so fishing for them in the creek is okay.  Steelhead and coho will be out of the question.