POD! Fish- DFG North Bay Aqueduct Larval/juvenile fish sampling March-July (1992-2004)

Name of study: North Bay Aqueduct Survey Program element: 096 Program manager: Kevin Fleming, [email protected] Project Lead: Michael Dege, [email protected] Agency: Department of Fish and Game, Bay Delta Division Address: 4001 North Wilson Way, Stockton, CA 95205 Phone: (209) 948-7800, Fax: (209) 946-6355 Purpose/Objective: This survey has two major foci: 1) Estimate and evaluate larval delta smelt loss at the State Water Project’s North Bay Aqueduct (NBA) due to entrainment and 2) Monitor abundance and distribution of larval delta smelt in the Cache Slough Complex and near Prospect Island. Prospect Island is a CALFED habitat restoration site and this sampling is used to evaluate whether delta smelt would use this site for spawning habitat. Future restoration of Prospect Island will warrant additional monitoring stations. The presence of delta smelt larvae in Barker Slough (Part of the Cache slough complex leading to the NBA) is a criterion for restrictions on NBA pumping. The 1995 Delta Smelt Biological Opinion mandates monitoring at the three Barker Slough stations in Barker Slough and the surrounding areas on a "recent-time" (within 72 hours) basis, posting delta smelt information on the world wide web so that interested parties may use this information for water management decisions. Data collected: Water temperature, surface electro-conductivity, water transparency, water volume sampled, tidal stage, sample time, tow depth, bottom depth, and fish catch. Geographic range of field work: Northern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Number of sites: Eight stations. Period of record (start year): 1995. Size for complete data base for program element in KB (MB): 10+ megabytes. Number of individual files: One file or database contains all data.