Acoustic Tag Monitoring for Napa River Steelhead at the Napa Plant Site Year One Preliminary Results Presented to Napa Sonoma Marsh Restoration Group November 17, 2010 Presented by Thomas Keegan, Principal Investigator ECORP Consulting, Inc. in association with Duck’s Unlimited NOAA

Study Partners Ducks Unlimited NOAA Fisheries UC Davis Biotelemetry Lab Napa County Resource Conservation District Brezina and Associates

Study Interests Contribute to the innovative collection of sound, scientifically based information NOAA Fisheries is a study participant and has indicated that fish distribution data are necessary for our understanding of how these fish species use restored tidal marsh habitat   Enable NOAA Fisheries and other regulatory agencies to make well-informed decisions regarding potential impacts that proposed restoration activities and other maritime construction activities, may or may not have on special-status species and habitats

Background Overarching LTMS and UC Davis/NOAA Study In 2007, focused on hatchery late fall run Chinook salmon and steelhead (Juvenile Salmonid Outmigration and Distribution Study Design for the San Francisco Estuary) In 2009, green sturgeon added as a target species Inception of the California Fish Tagging Consortium (CFTC) Extensive receiver array (VEMCO equipment) large influx of tagged fish through system Centralized database More recently, tagging of wild fish populations salmonids and green sturgeon

LTMS and UC Davis/NOAA Overarching Study: Initial Receiver Locations

Introduction A Story of Partnership NOAA, funding through ARRA, requires monitoring of special-status fish species in restored tidal marsh habitat Ducks Unlimited, as grantee, interested in innovative way to track wild Napa River steelhead, and determine use of habitats Wild Napa River Steelhead Available from Napa County Resource Conservation District

Study Objectives to assess the utilization of restored tidal marsh habitats by special-status salmonids and green sturgeon to determine the regional effectiveness of tidal restoration efforts on these species to partner with other study investigators (i.e., participate with the CFTC Central Database maintained by the NOAA Santa Cruz Laboratory)

Methods

VEMCO Receiver Deployment 10 VR2W receivers installed for NPS Project 2 in Napa River (gate) above NPS 1 Fagan Slough 1 North Unit Breach 1 Center Unit Breach (Barge Canal) 2 South Unit Breaches 1 Dutchman Slough 2 below Tennessee Bridge (gate) 4 VR2W receivers installed for USAR, Mare Island 2 at Mare Island piers 22 and 23 2 at San Pablo Dredge Disposal site (SF9)

Receiver Deployment on Piers Schedule 80 PVC deployment bracket Attached to pier pilings with large cable ties Safety lines through PVC and tied to pier pilings Study identification placard

Receiver Deployment Bracket

Acoustic Release Device and Setup for Open-water Receiver Deployment

Acoustic Tag for Testing Signal Reception

Collection of Juvenile Steelhead (actually by NCRCD staff Collection of Juvenile Steelhead (actually by NCRCD staff!) for Tag and release with VEMCO V7 Tags

Acoustic Tags in Antiseptic

Implantation of Acoustic Tag into Body Cavity of Juvenile Napa River Steelhead

After Recovery from Surgery, Fish is Released at Point of Capture

Napa River Steelhead collected from the RST and tagged Fish ID Weight (g) FL (mm) Release Time Release Date NWSTH_001 281.5 305 14:00:00 4/8/2010 NWSTH_002 99.2 212 NWSTH_003 68.3 190 14:25:00 NWSTH_004 46 164 NWSTH_005* 133.8 236 NWSTH_006 81.3 205 NWSTH_007 67.6 193 NWSTH_008 47.8 168 14:40:00 NWSTH_009 124 233 10:12:50 4/20/2010 NWSTH_010 65.6 197 NWSTH_011 89.8 204 NWSTH_012 53.5 173 NWSTH_013 59.2 179 10:42:00 NWSTH_014 62.6 182 NWSTH_015 103.6 213 NWSTH_016 203 NWSTH_017 79.8 200 11:10:00 NWSTH_018 86.8 206 NWSTH_019 54 NWSTH_020 67.5 184 NWSTH_021* 96.2 208 N/A 5/7/2010

Preliminary NPS Project Results Tracked 14 of 20 tagged fish through Napa River, into and through SF Bay Off-channel habitat usage documented Tracked 10 Napa River steelhead (50%) through GG Bridge array Tracked 6 of those fish on Pt. Reyes Array Numerous tag ID’s from Sac’to River/Delta release (CFTC) documented in vicinity of NPS; including CV steelhead, Chinook salmon, and green sturgeon

Napa Plant Site Project Receiver Locations

Mare Island and SF9 Locations Pier 22 & 23 SF9 Dredge Material Placement Area

Tracking of Napa River Steelhead through Project Area Fish ID Release Date Upper Napa 1 & 2 Fagan Slough 3 North Unit 4 Central Unit 5 South Unit 6 & 7 Dutchman Slough 8 Tennessee Bridge 9 & 10 Mare Island 22 & 23 San Pablo SF9 Golden Gate Array Pt. Reyes Array Small (<70g and 200mm) NWSTH_003 4/8/2010 4/12 4/13 4/14 NWSTH_004 4/27-28 4/28-29-30 4/29-30 5/26 NWSTH_012 4/20/2010 4/25 4/28 5/30 NWSTH_013 4/23 4/24 NWSTH_014 4/26 4/27 NWSTH_020 4/29 5/18 Large (>70g and 200mm) NWSTH_001 4/11-12 4/18 4/15-16 4/15-18 NWSTH_002 4/13-14 5/5 NWSTH_006 4/12-13 NWSTH_009 4/23-24 5/8 NWSTH_011 NWSTH_015 4/24-25 NWSTH_016 4/22-23 5/2 NWSTH_017 4/22-23-24 Add'tl Tagged Fish (LTMS) 10 2 9 20 na

Travel Days from Date of Release through Project Area Fish ID Release Date Upper Napa 1 & 2 Fagan Slough 3 North Unit 4 Central Unit 5 South Unit 6 & 7 Dutchman Slough 8 Tennessee Bridge 9 & 10 Mare Island 22 & 23 San Pablo SF9 Golden Gate Array Pt. Reyes Array Small (<70g and 200mm)   NWSTH_003 4/8/2010 6 NWSTH_004 19 20 21 48 NWSTH_012 4/20/2010 40 NWSTH_013 NWSTH_014 7 NWSTH_020 9 28 Large (>70g and 200mm) NWSTH_001 10 NWSTH_002 27 NWSTH_006 NWSTH_009 18 NWSTH_011 NWSTH_015 NWSTH_016 2 12 NWSTH_017

Emigration and Habitat Use Rate of Emigration can affect utilization of tidal marsh habitats by fish, and is largely affected by: Volume of Napa River outflow (storm events) Tidal regime (large vs. small fluctuations) Size at emigration Maturity of tidal marsh habitat To the extent possible, we will take into account the above factors in planning our tagging and release strategy during the next two years of the study.