44 



DEPARTMENT OF FISEI AND GAME 



following represent some of its major pollution con- 

 trol activities: 



1. A stud\- to determine the economic importance 

 of fishing and water sports recreation in the Los An- 

 geles-Long Beach Harbor. Approximately 45 percent 

 of the State's live bait catch is taken in the confines 

 of the outer Los Angeles Harbor. During the bien- 

 nium the value of this fishery to the bait boats alone 

 was approximately $600,000 per year. The value of 

 the party boat fishery, dependent upon Los Angeles 

 Harbor bait, was estimated to be over 1 1,500,000 per 

 year— making a total annual value to the economy of 

 over 52,000,000 per year. 



The department is concerned over the possibility 

 that increasing waste discharges into the Inner and 

 Outer Los Angeles Harbors will jeopardize this valu- 

 able resource. The Inner Los Angeles Harbor, once a 

 source of live bait is now essentially sterile due to 

 waste discharges. Since the inner and outer harbors 

 are contiguous, increases in poorly treated industrial 

 wastes may ultimately degrade the outer harbor as 

 well. 



The major waste discharge into the Los Angeles 

 Harbor is via the Dominguez Channel which receives 

 wastes from about 18 major industries. The flow from 

 the channel is approximately 30,000 gallons per minute 

 and except during rainy weather consists almost en- 

 tirely of waste water from the discharging industries. 

 Bioassays indicate that concentrations above 0.72 per- 

 cent in the receiving water will be deleterious to fish 

 life. 



2. Since July, 1956, the department has conducted 

 bioassays on the City of Los Angeles Hyperion sewage 

 treatment plant effluent. This work has been conducted 

 for the Los Angeles Regional Water Pollution Control 

 Board as part of the board's monitoring program. Re- 

 sults thus far indicate that no direct toxicity can be 

 demonstrated in areas of Santa Monica Bay designated 

 by the board to be protected for aquatic life and fish 

 propagation. At the end of the biennium, plans were 

 under way for a similar bioassay testing program on 

 Los Angeles County's White Point sewage treatment 

 plant effluent. 



3. The department expended a considerable amount 

 of effort working with regional w ater pollution con- 

 trol boards and other state agencies on the problem of 

 a potentially expanding pulp and paper industry in 

 California. The industry needs both a ready suppK' of 

 timber as well as a large supply of very high qualit)- 

 water in order to operate economically and has ex- 

 pressed plans for installations in the Redding area as 

 well as the Rio Vista area along the Sacramento River. 

 Since the Redding area of the Sacramento River sup- 



ports the most important king salmon spawning area 

 in the state, the department insisted upon, and the 

 regional board has written, waste discharge require- 

 ments which are designed to prevent any damage to 

 the fisheries resource. By the end of the biennium it 

 was not certain whether or not the pulp mill would 

 be constructed in this sensitive area. 



Santa fAonica Bay 



Late in 1957, the City of Los Angeles instituted a 

 continuing program of trawling in Santa A'lonica Bay 

 as a basis for measuring long-term changes in fish pop- 

 ulations brought about by the sewage discharge from 

 its Hyperion Treatment Plant. A series of about 30 

 survey stations in water ranging in depth from 60 to 

 600 feet are occupied each quarter using a 24-foot 

 shrimp tri-net. The department has an observer aboard 

 the cit\''s boat during all trawling operations and all 

 fish and invertebrates taken in this work are examined 

 at the California State Fisheries Laboratory. A record 

 is kept for each species listing drag number and date, 

 length, weight and sex. Notations are made regarding 

 state of maturity, food habits, age and particularly any 

 abnormalities observed. 



A new sludge outfall, which discharges seven miles 

 west of Hyperion, was put in operation late in 1957. 

 A new effluent outfall which will discharge five miles 

 west of the plant is under construction and will be in 

 operation in the near future. 



With the information gathered from the trawling 

 work, the department will be able to assess the amount 

 of change in fish populations and any danger to them 

 brought about by the discharges from the new outfalls. 



Black Abatone Transplant Experiment 



To assess the effect of the White Point sewer outfall 

 upon abalones in the area, a double transplant and tag- 

 ging operation was carried out at the end of the pre- 

 vious biennium. Several hundred black abalones were 

 gathered at Bird Rock and Catalina Harbor, Santa 

 Catalina Island, and transported to White Point where 

 they were tagged, measured, weighed, and trans- 

 planted. A similar transplant was made back to Santa 

 Catalina Island. 



It took less than a year for all but one of the Cata- 

 lina Harbor black abalones to die in the White Point 

 area. One individual of this transplanted lot lasted for 

 1 3 months prior to being found on its back at the 

 high tide line— completely defunct. 



At Catalina Harbor, a number of the White Point 

 abalones lived and prospered. Several were found dur- 

 ing the winter of 1957 and all had healthy animals in 

 shells that showed, in some cases, more than three- 

 quarters of an inch of new growth at the margin. 



