Fish Rescue Teams Scramble to Save 271 of the Remaining Steelhead in the Santa Monica Mountains

In a rescue operation that started small (literally) and got bigger as time went on, a determined rescue operation has proven fruitful. When it comes to the protection of the last wild steelhead trout population in the Santa Monica Mountains, teams were mobilized earlier this month in an effort to pluck these threatened fish - from smallest to largest - from the Topanga River before it was too late.

With the nearby Palisades fire still smoldering, teams were first deployed to the picturesque river to grab as many tidewater gobies as they could. As teams descended upon the river, they were able to take over 750 gobies from the lagoon and transfer them to aquariums for safe and temporary keeping. With a change in weather patterns on the horizon, including rainfall, researchers and scientists began to grow weary of yet another weather event that would affect the biodiversity of the river. 

With everything charred around the river, the forecast of rainfall gave organizers a sinking feeling that the worst had yet to come. With possible landslides or worse on the horizon, teams soon learned that they, in fact, had larger fish to fry. 

Holding the last known wild population of steelhead trout in the Santa Monica mountains, teams were again deployed, this time in search of larger, more difficult to catch prey. With winter conditions at play, these fish will hide under rocks and other debris and can be difficult to locate. With the clock working against them, teams deployed sieve nets along with backpack-style electro-shockers in an effort to group the fish together, cover larger tracts of the river bed and come up with nets filled with steelhead.  And it worked.

A team of 50-or-so rescuers from a variety of organizations and agencies worked day and night to cover about 4,000 yards of what they considered to be the best habitat. As operations continued, rescuers soon were filling five-gallon buckets with fresh water and steelhead where they were soon transferred to large trucks fitted with holding tanks.

From there the fish were safely moved to a nearby fish hatchery, where totals of captured steelhead soon ballooned to over 270 specimens. 

While similar rescues have been performed in the past, organizers have admitted that this kind of rescue operation is the first of its kind. As many are weary as to how the steelhead will perform in holding tanks in a hatchery environment, they remain optimistic that they will soon be released back into their natural environment. Until then, tanks are being monitored by pathologists around the clock and crews remain hopeful that the trout can be put back where they belong sooner rather than later.