PROTECTING
WILD CALIFORNIA
Prior to being detected in 2019, Pacific lamprey were last seen in Southern California’s Santa Margarita River just before America entered World War II. (JOHN HEIL AND DAMON GOODMAN/USFWS)
PACIFIC LAMPREY SWIMMING AGAIN IN SOCAL By John Heil
“T
hey will recolonize, if we pave the way for them,” said Damon Goodman, a former biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arcata office who is now a regional director in Northern California for CalTrout. If this sounds similar to the famous
baseball-related quote in the film Field of Dreams – “If you build it, they will come” – it is. And it is exactly what happened with Pacific lamprey recolonizing in the Santa Margarita River in Southern California. Found in the river in August 2019 for the first time since last documented in 1940, this is now the furthest south the species has currently recolonized, 260
miles south of the previous location in San Luis Obispo, which recolonized in 2017. These results were confirmed again in 2020 and 2021; this followed unsuccessful efforts in the 1990s, 2005 and 2014 without locating a single lamprey. Dr. Stewart Reid, from Western Fishes, believes that the key to their return was a recent high flow event combined with
calsportsmanmag.com | MARCH 2022 California Sportsman
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