2019 Clifton Court Forebay Predatory Fish Relocation Study

The Clifton Court Forebay (CCF) Predatory Fish Relocation Study (PFRS) was implemented in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) letter dated April 9, 2015. The letter required the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to immediately implement interim measure (a) of condition 3 as part of the larger effort to comply with Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA) Action IV.4.2(2) of the 2009 Biological Opinion and Conference Opinion on the Long-term Operations of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project (NMFS BiOp; NMFS 2009). The PFRS was two years in duration. The 2019 field season was an initial attempt to test the effectiveness of five commercial-type fishing gears and to acquire the necessary information to advise any gear modifications and method refinements to improve catch effectiveness. The PFRS involved capturing and relocating predators from CCF to Bethany Reservoir with the goal of decreasing pre-screen loss of protected fish species with an emphasis on Chinook Salmon and steelhead. Predatory fish included black basses, catfish, and Striped Bass. Three “active” gears (beach seines, lampara nets, Kodiak trawls) were deployed, pulled through the water, and retrieved by field staff. Two “passive” gears (hoop traps and fyke traps) were placed in the water for ~24 h for each sample to collect predatory fish and then retrieved by field staff. Field work typically occurred 4 days per week between 3/1/2019 and 6/4/2019 with 3-4 gears conducted each day.