This month’s article is from the March 2026 Carmel River Steelhead Association Newsletter. Just down the road near Monterey, California, they have been dedicated to bringing back steelhead numbers to the Carmel River for over 50 years. I encourage you to volunteer with them during their rescue season every spring where they move steelhead smolt and juvenile steelhead from drying tributaries to the mainstem of the river. Saving these fish doesn’t happen without our support. They also would appreciate if you become an member and/or donate.
To read the article on their website with photos, go to:
https://mailchi.mp/d58824a6518e/annual-crsa-members-meeting-8336713?e=7fb2d2fc3e
To become a member or donate:
https://carmelsteelhead.org/donate/
Thank you President Steve Park for giving permission to re-print your article.
March 2026
Carmel River Steelhead Association
President’s Message
written by Steve Park
It is hard to not want to rant, rave, and set the hair on fire when misinformation is spread to the public. Recently, there was some information put out to the public in the form of an ad, which was run in multiple media sources. It’s an okay ad in some respects, but it mentioned that the Carmel River steelhead are “thriving”. That, my friends, is blatant misinformation! If that statement were made a hundred years ago, it might be true. Maybe.
What has happened to the Carmel River and its steelhead sea run trout in the last one hundred years is anything but thriving. As a matter of fact, it has been nothing but a downward trend getting worse every decade. Anyone who has paid attention to this spiral would know that the river and its steelhead are still barely getting up from the mat they have been slammed to – no matter how much change and help have come their way.
In the ad, we are seeing a big healthy steelhead in a river that, rather than drying back, is flowing somewhat more frequently, which is good news. However, should we have an extended drought like our Mediterranean climate is prone to, like the one in the mid nineteen eighties, where the river did not connect with the ocean for four straight years – well then there may not be enough steelhead stock left to continue the Carmel River South Central Coast Segment.
So where are we now? Are we thriving? Absolutely not! Are we struggling? Every day. And this is with river diversion down by sixty percent (from its high point at the beginning of the twenty-first century), the San Clemente gone, numerous agencies involved, a state water board involved, a water district, a water provider, multiple conservation organizations and Mother Earth and her cohort Mother Nature making up the matrix involved in the river’s “save me” equation. The steelhead, the frogs, and virtually everything in our super-stressed river environment must be respected and rescued until the all-clear signal goes out. That signal is a long way away from being heard.
How’s it going with all this energy being invested in over what is now around four decades? For the most part, it is helping to stop the bleeding, but it’s still a life support situation. Even with a hundred-year-old dam gone, there is still a shortage of steelhead. Ask anyone how many steelhead are in the yearly runs these days, and their shoulders shrug, while whispers of maybe five hundred slip out. How do we know that? We don’t. There is a mechanical trap called a weir that spans the river just above the lagoon (it is in place only when flows allow), where steelhead are counted; antennas are recognizing and recording the steelhead that have PIT tags in them, and there is the ladder trap system at the Los Padres Dam, where steelhead are counted. Once any hard numbers are developed from these counts, then the estimating begins. Kinda hard to do considering pulling out and then putting back in the weir during and after high flows, steelhead who don’t have tags in them for the antennas to pick up, and migrators who “just say no” to the hugely unpopular ladder sticking down into the plunge pool at the base of the dam. Another learning tool would be redd surveys in the main stem and the watershed’s tributary streams. The redds many times are often hard to find; you can’t clearly identify them as certain, and we are back to estimating how many spawning pairs are involved by how many redds have been identified as certain.
So how is it that someone decided to state that the steelhead are thriving? What kind of misinformation is that when it isn’t known how many steelhead are here in any given year? Are the numbers improving? Don’t know. Are conditions better? Some are. Are there more eyes on the ball? For sure. Is there a “failsafe” water source other than the Carmel River? Nope, not yet.
How can someone state that the steelhead in the Carmel River are thriving?
The answer is they are not thriving, and this is horribly misleading misinformation. Period.
In the February 27 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone, there was an ad from the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District (MPWMD) where they said the steelhead population was “thriving”. I did not think much at the time, but the next day I received an email from an acquaintance congratulating me on the good news. Articles like the one mentioned that are not accurate do have consequences, and coming from an agency, they have even more credibility. Because of that, I feel a need to correct some misinformation before the public believes the steelhead run is recovered and we do not have to work to protect steelhead.
Not wanting to take anything away from the fisheries crew at MPWMD because they do real good work, but the steelhead population is not thriving. As of the end of February, only 31 adult steelhead have been placed over Los Padres Dam. On average, 50% of the run of steelhead are transported over Los Padres Dam after February, so there is time for more fish, but even 62 fish would be a pitifully small number and a long way from thriving.
There are estimates of historic steelhead numbers from 10,000 to 20,000 fish, so even 200 would be a very critically low number. Steelhead are still a federally threatened species, with a goal of 4,000 fish needed to remove the threatened status. CRSA and MPWMD both need to rescue stranded fish every year as creeks and the mainstem river dry. Last year, 72 different people volunteered 1,220 hours with CRSA just to rescue Cachagua Creek. That would not be required if the population were thriving.
In 2001, a high number year, only 347 steelhead were transported over Los Padres Dam. In 2011, another high-number year, only 204 steelhead were transported over the dam. Those high numbers of years are just a fraction of what used to swim up the Carmel River, and not close to removing steelhead from the endangered species list. It appears this year will be even further from an adequate run of steelhead, so please do not consider the steelhead run on the Carmel as thriving. When 200 fish are considered acceptable, then we are just a short way from their extinction.
Posted on April 27th, 2026