28 Fi«n AND oA.Aii: com. mission 



REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF FISH CONSERVATION 



By A. C. Taft, Chief 



The present biennium has been the most disastrous in the history 

 of the Bureau as a result of heavy storms in December, 1987, and 

 again in March, 1938, that caused unprecedented damage to hatcheries 

 and egg taking stations. This type of damage was the most obvious 

 but equally important Mas the actual loss of fish in the streams and 

 the destruction of their food and cover. 



This series of storms undoubtedly had serious effects on the fresh- 

 water game fish of California. Practically all streams in the State 

 reached higher stages than have l)een observed for many years past 

 and in some instances were subjected to torrential flows tliat seriously 

 altered the streams themselves. This erosion of the stream beds dur- 

 ing the storm of December was most harmful to the fall spawning 

 species such as the King salmon and the Loch Leven and Eastern 

 Brook trout, as in many instances nests have been dug out and in 

 others buried under many feet of gravel. The Steelhead runs which 

 were very good this year were aided in reaching the spawning grounds 

 by high and muddy water which made fishing very difficult. Reports 

 on the north coast streams between San Francisco and Eureka indi- 

 cated that a larger number of fish gained the upper reaches of the 

 streams than have been seen for several years but the successful spawn- 

 ing of these fish is also dependent upon water conditions after the eggs 

 are deposited. 



In southern California the i-ecent floods have had very severe 

 effects on the streams and man,y of them have been changed so as to 

 be scarcely recognizable. Such great amounts of gravel were moved 

 that for many miles the old stream channels have been entirely obliter- 

 ated. The trees that bordered the streams have been torn out and dur- 

 ing the summer there will be less shade to keep the water cool and favor- 

 able for trout. In some places it will probably be found that a large 

 portion of the water will flow through the loosened gravel and rocks 

 that have been newly deposited and as a result, the surface flow will 

 be small in amount and high in temperature. 



In addition to the loss of fish that are native to the streams, tlie 

 work of replacement through planting was made much more difficult 

 through the severe damage done by the storms to hatcheries, egg taking 

 stations and the 3'oung fish which were being reared in the hatcheries. 

 The total damage was nearly $100,000 and included the complete 

 destruction of two hatcheries and such serious damage to another that 

 it could not be operated during 1938. Steelhead and Rainbow egg 

 taking stations throughout the State were damaged to varying extents 

 and some of them had to be replaced as many as three times. 



The first great loss was the total destruction of the Cold Creek 

 hatchery near Ukiah. This hatchery was situated at the junction of 



