[Nate Martin]

Recently the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released evidence showing a huge pelagic organism decline in the delta. The exact cause is unknown but suspected to be acute and chronic toxicity from various pollutants such as organo-chlorine pesticides, and organo-phosphate pesticides among other things.

For those of you that would like to do a little more research on the topic, I recommend it. The situation could be similar in other delta areas.

I say, the evidence and data collected do not verify this huge pelagic organism decline. DWR along with contractors drag a 10 foot by 10 foot net behind a boat, for equal distances along different sampling locations in the delta. The workers actually count individual fish, and categorize species. They have been doing this for 10 plus years. Previous years show huge fluctuations. The past 5 years show this very very slight downward trend. I'm not convinced yet.

Nate