SATICOY : Biologists Elated Over Steelhead Find in River

For the first time in many years, a 20-inch steelhead trout was found in the Santa Clara River on its way to spawn upstream, probably in the far reaches of the river’s purest and coldest tributary in Sespe Creek.

Elated state biologists said the find Thursday, along with the fact that more fish were caught last week, proves there is a viable steelhead population in the river, something many in the county have doubted in the last several years.

The Santa Clara River once supported thousands of steelhead and was one of many rivers from Northern Mexico all the way up the Pacific Coast with thriving populations of the ocean-going fish.

But steelhead no longer exist in Northern Mexico, or San Diego or Orange counties, and are now limited to small populations in four streams in Southern California--the Santa Clara and the Ventura rivers in Ventura County, Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County and the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County.

“Now they are on the verge of extinction anywhere south of San Luis Obispo County,” said Dennis McEwan, steelhead specialist with the California Department of Fish and Game in Sacramento. “So you can see why we’re so elated at this news of finding the fish.”

The trout was found Thursday in a trap on the Freeman Diversion dam that spans the Santa Clara River at Saticoy. The trap is part of a $2-million fish ladder built at the dam to allow steelhead to migrate.

Last week, a dozen small smolts were trapped on their way downstream from freshwater to the ocean. Like the salmon, steelhead are born in freshwater. They remain in freshwater streams for one to three years before swimming to sea for a similar period. As adults, they return to their natal streams to spawn. After spawning, they either return to the sea, or die, worn out from the upstream battle.

The find of the steelhead, which is being considered for endangered status along the Pacific Coast, also proves that a fish ladder on the dam can work “when operated properly,” said Dwayne Maxwell, a Fish and Game biologist.

Until recently, Maxwell said, water that diverted the fish to the trap was coming in too fast, possibly battering the fish.

But there may have been undetected steelhead in the Santa Clara River since the heavy rains of 1991, when the fish counter at the ladder was not operating properly, McEwan said.

Now that the Freeman, which is owned and operated by the United Water Conservation District, is working properly, the steelhead should remain in the river, McEwan said.

“The Freeman, with the ladder and the screens, has got what it needs to provide protection for the fish,” he said.