An error has led to the death of 21,000 fish at the University of California Davis, including an endangered species, in what the university is calling a “catastrophic failure.”
The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday:
About 21,000 fish, including sturgeon and endangered chinook salmon, died of chlorine exposure in a “catastrophic failure” at a UC Davis research facility, university officials said Thursday.
…
The Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture was studying bioenergetics — how cells transform energy — and environmental stressors on fish species including green and white sturgeon and endangered chinook salmon, both of which face challenges in the wild in California.
…
Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon are listed as endangered, and climate change is pushing the species to the brink of extinction amid drought and warming waters, experts say.
The fate of endangered fish species is a deeply contested political topic in California, where fresh water supplies are often diverted from agricultural uses and used to maintain flow in local rivers and replenish fresh water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Farmers are now currently suffering from severe water restrictions as the state endures a third year of extreme drought.
Research into endangered species is at the heart of dispute resolution regarding water supplies. Agricultural users and rural municipalities often argue that local fish are threatened by alien predator species, not by lower water flows.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
(Photo: file)