Fresno-area candidate for Congress wants to declare the Delta smelt extinct
A hopeful for a Fresno-area seat in Congress has initiated a petition to have the embattled Delta smelt declared extinct.
Chris Mathys said Monday he took the first step toward that petition, which is a letter of intent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of California 30 days before filing the formal petition.
The petition is similar to a court document in that it needs to lay out the argument and back it up with facts and science, Mathys said.
“This is going to take months if not years,” he said. “Our position is we’re making major decisions on the way water is released based on a fish that in reality is extinct.”
The Delta smelt originates in the San Francisco Estuary and grows to about 4 inches, according to state Fish and Wildlife. They are considered threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
The fish is at the center of a battle between farmers and environmentalists. Smelt species protections mean a larger water flow through the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and less for farmers.
Mathys said studies have shown the dwindling numbers of the fish, which has teetered on the edge of extinction for years. He argues there’s no reason to wait any longer to call the fish extinct, not when water is so important in the central San Joaquin Valley.
“We can’t let a technicality or government regulation get in the way of what our whole economy relies on,” he said. “Our economy relies on water.”
Environmental advocates typically consider the fish an indicator of ecological health and an innocent victim of California’s water shortage.
A study authored in December from professors at UC Davis found the fish is so rare that it is difficult to study potential adverse effects from recent decisions made by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The Delta smelt,” the paper says, “has become so rare that improving the species’ status will be very difficult. ... Species with exceedingly small populations, such as the Delta smelt, are difficult to manage under the best of conditions, and the success of projects designed to benefit populations in this position is always uncertain.”
No fish were found in 2020 using the typical sampling methods, UC Davis professors said.
Mathys, a Republican, has declared he is running for the 21st District seat in Congress, which includes parts of Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 1:13 PM.
