The rescue team donned waders and marched into a murky Malibu lagoon scorched by the Palisades fire. Their mission: Save the lives of northern tidewater gobies, a tiny endangered fish.
The destructive wildfire had stripped the slopes of the nearby Santa Monica Mountains and now rain could send a tremendous amount of sediment flowing into Topanga Lagoon, a death trap for fish.
The squad encompassing biologists from several government agencies mobilized late last week to try to capture the swamp-colored, semi-translucent gobies before a storm arrived. But success wasn’t guaranteed.
It was a seasonal population lowpoint for the species, which hunkers down in winter under rocks and vegetation. And a sandbar that had severed Topanga Lagoon from the Pacific Ocean had been swept away by high tides and an influx of water used for firefighting — an unnatural breach that could flush them into the surf.
But soon after the scientists — of the trained, in-training and citizen variety — shimmied large nets that functioned as sieves into the brackish water, gleeful cries began to ring out. They hit the goby jackpot.
“The goby gods are working with us,” said Rosi Dagit, principal conservation biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains and ringleader of the rescue.
Then she exclaimed, “Oh, look at that one!” Another goby redeemed.
Within a few hours, they’d transferred 760 healthy gobies to plastic coolers, exceeding their goal of about 400.
While the gobies were spirited away to safety, another fish of top concern remained in danger. The last known population of steelhead trout in the coastal mountain range occupies the same watershed and are set to be rescued Thursday in a more challenging operation.
Help may come in the nick of time, with the first rain in months expected this weekend in Los Angeles County. Although saved fish is an immediate win, the burned watersheds could take years to recover. And habitat that is offline translates to fewer places to move fish in an emergency.
Tidewater gobies are a hardy fish fallen on hard luck. The fish can withstand extreme temperature and salinity changes, and can even slurp air from the water surface if the conditions force them to.
But their numbers plummeted amid habitat destruction from agricultural and coastal development, prompting their listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. The fish also are threatened by drought and invasive predators.
Steelhead trout — once found in most streams in the Santa Monica Mountains — similarly declined as habitat disappeared, degraded and fragmented. Silvery steelhead migrate to the ocean and return to natal freshwater streams to spawn, a cycle that can be impeded by dams and concrete channels. A distinct Southern California population is listed as endangered at the state and federal level.
Topanga Creek, a biodiversity hot spot that drains into the Santa Monica Bay, is the last refuge for the coastal range’s steelhead and supports a population of tidewater gobies recently estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
“It’s unusually preserved by mostly native vegetation, which gives rise to native fauna,” said Alyssa Morgan, a project manager for the resource conservation district. “Especially when you have less and less of those hot spots, they’re really, really important to preserve.”
The conservation district offers programs and services focused on watershed management, restoration, research and education throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and surrounding areas. It’s not a regulatory agency, but can advise such agencies.
Malibu Creek, a nearby watershed, burned in December. Dagit said it’s the first time that the Malibu and Topanga watersheds are simultaneously gone in her 38 years of monitoring efforts. Typically, they’d “tag team” the creeks, but now no fish can be moved into Malibu.
“We can’t keep doing these fire drills,” Dagit said during the recent goby rescue, calling for a more strategic approach.
Numerous partners participated in the rescue, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey and California State Parks.
Fires have challenged relocations in other areas. The massive Woolsey fire of 2018 scorched creeks in the Santa Monica Mountains that haven’t recovered to the point where they can receive fish, according to said Kyle Evans, an environmental program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“The amount of suitable habitat has been reduced significantly over the past 100 years due to anthropogenic impacts stemming from land and water use and the frequent wildfires add stress to that already impacted system,” Evans, whose agency is leading the steelhead rescue, wrote in an email.
Evans said the state agency has carried out fish relocations and rescues since its inception more than a century ago. “In the past this may have been to supplement stocks, plant fish or plan around water diversions or dams,” he said, “but in the modern era, rescues and translocations are used as management tools.”
Rescuing the steelhead trout will be more complex, Dagit said. Unlike the diminutive gobies, steelhead can grow up to 2 feet. They’ll need to be transferred into hatchery trucks outfitted with large tanks.
Dagit said accessing the creek will be difficult, and the road will need to be closed to traffic.
“Look at how burned these hillsides are,” she said, referencing charred slopes looming above Pacific Coast Highway. “This isn’t even as bad as it is in the creek.”
As the trout’s fate hangs in the balance, the rescued gobies are safely tucked away at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and Santa Monica’s Heal the Bay Aquarium.
Brenton Spies, a lecturer at Cal State Channel Islands with goby expertise, said how long the fish will remain in captivity depends on when rainstorms arrive. One or two rainstorms could flush out debris in the water, potentially making it safe for them to return.
Gobies live only for about a year, so those on the rescue mission were told collecting the largest specimens wasn’t ideal — they may not have much life left.
The rescue came together quickly; time was of the essence.
Spies said goby populations were lost during the Woolsey blaze and the monster Thomas fire that preceded it in 2017.
“We weren’t able to get out to them in time,” said Spies, who joined the recent rescue effort.
One of those ill-fated populations inhabited Carpinteria Creek, he said, which drains into the Santa Barbara Channel. There, telephone poles and tons of vegetation crowded the lagoon for months.
“It just kind of suffocated them,” he said, noting that the lagoon hadn’t breached.
Before the freshly liberated gobies were driven to their new digs, their rescuers crooned at them. Dozens of the fish darted here and there in a blue cooler, blissfully unaware of the peril they probably narrowly escaped.
“They’re so cute,” said Luke Benson, a field technician biologist with the Santa Monica Mountains resource conservation district.
“The little eyes on top really get me,” said Jelly Kahler, community engagement manager for the district.
Amid the exuberance, the toll of the tragedy wrought by the still-burning fire — human, environmental and otherwise — simmered.
Crew members with the district said mobilizing in a pinch is nothing new to them, but this endeavor hit different given the personal effects many experienced from the blaze. The Palisades fire, 70% contained as of Wednesday, has devastated thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
“There have been fires in the Palisades and Topanga, our trees and our fields have been burned in the past, but to have an entire town burn down in our community and so close to us,” Kahler said while driving to the rescue, “it’s a rather different feeling from the other tragedies.”
Dagit, who lives in the Topanga Canyon community of Fernwood, was evacuated during the emergency.
On Friday afternoon, after the successful goby rescue, she wrote in an email that she had just found out she would be going home the following day.
“Definitely a good day!” she wrote.
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