Delta Smelt, Icon of California Water Wars, Is Almost Extinct
Tiny fish's survival hangs in the balance as severe drought and decades of water pumping drain its habitat.
SAN FRANCISCO, CaliforniaA luminous little fish that smells like cucumbers and has the power to slow the flow of water to thirsty California cities and farms is swimming closer to extinction.
Only six delta smelt—the lowest number ever found—were netted in a survey by state biologists last month. In previous years, as many as several hundred had been caught in spring surveys.
The population of the three-to-four-inch (eight to ten centimeters) silvery blue fish, which lives only in the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has been falling for decades as huge volumes of freshwater are diverted through hundreds of miles of aqueducts and canals.
