..water is for fighting over. No more prophetic words than those of Mark Twain so many years ago. With the exploding population growth of our beautiful state, the recent low rainfall years has caused all sorts of water-related controversies to be raise their ugly heads. Water interests in their desperation to stop the decline of not only the endangered Delta smelt and many other native California fishes such a Silver Salmon, Chinook Salmon, and Steelhead, are now pointing their finger at non-native species such as Striped Bass, Largemouth Bass as a significant contributors to the decline of native species. They ignore or attempt to divert people's thinking that prior to the huge water diversions to the south state, populations of both native and non-native species coexisted in large numbers. There is now ( Assembly Bill 1253 ) an attempt to lift all limits of Striped Bass and allow the commercial harvest of the Striped Bass to reduce the numbers of predator species. The California Sport Fishing Alliance is leading the charge against the bill. You will be able to make feelings known by sending or faxing letters to the appropriate parties on the CSPA's website or on savedeltafish.com.
UPDATE: The bill was gutted due to a good showing by over 60 groups opposing the bill. Read more about it here. As the article says, " The water wars in California are just beginning."
