What is the Role of the Pumps in the Decline of the Delta Smelt? - The Billion Dollar Question

Purpose: To examine the legal context of the ESA's requirement to protect the Delta Smelt and the underlying scientific data supporting the Secretary's Biological Opinion written to fulfill the requirements of the ESA.

Participants: 

Congressman Jim Costa

Craig Manson, Executive Director, Council for Endangered Species Act Reliability, former Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Interior

Tom Gede, Bingham McCutchen LLP, former Executive Director, Western Association of Attorneys General

Brenda Davis, Brenda Davis Law Group, former managing Counsel California Farm Bureau

What does science say about the impact of pumping and other factors contributing to the decline of the delta smelt?

Dr. Joseph Thorley, R.P.Bio, Fish Population Biologist, Poisson Consulting Ltd., 4215 Shasheen Road, Nelson, BC

Dr. Brian Dennis, Professor, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Statistics, University of Idaho, Fish and Wildlife Resources, Moscow, ID 83844-1136

Dr. Richard B. Deriso, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 8604 La Jolla Shores Dr., La Jolla, CA 92037-1508

Dr. Terrance J. Quinn II, Professor of Fish Population Dynamics, Juneau Center, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Juneau, AK 99801-8677

Dr. Irv Kornfield, Professor of Marine Sciences, School of Marine Science, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469-5751

Click here to read the entire transcript

Click here to download the Science Panel Documents