Hundreds of tiny endangered fish slipped from orange plastic buckets into a glittering lagoon in Malibu on Tuesday, returning home five months after being whisked away from threats wrought by the Palisades fire.
The repatriation of more than 300 northern tidewater gobies — led by the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains — marked a peaceful moment in a region still reeling from the aftermath of wildfires and now in turmoil due to federal immigration raids.
“In this time of total madness in our world and total upheaval in our environment, there’s not many moments when we get a chance to do something as hopeful as bringing the gobies back to their home,” Rosi Dagit, principal conservation biologist for the conservation district, told attendees of a small ceremony.
Saved in the nick of time
In January, Dagit orchestrated a successful rescue of 760 of the semi-translucent, swamp-colored fish from Topanga Lagoon, an unassuming biodiversity hotspot located off the Pacific Coast Highway that drains into the Santa Monica Bay.
The Palisades fire that sparked Jan. 7 tore through the area, scorching all of the critical habitat for the gobies and an endangered population of steelhead trout that occupied the same watershed. Soon after, meteorologists predicted rains that could sweep massive amounts of sediment into the water, threatening to kill the fish.
To save the gobies from that fate, scientists and citizen volunteers arrived on Jan. 17 and used giant nets that served as sieves to retrieve the fish that rarely exceed a length of two inches.
Numerous partners participated in the effort, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, California State Parks and Cal State University Channel Islands.
At the time, water from the firefighting effort had swept down the mountain creek and unnaturally breached a sandbar that separated the lagoon from the Pacific Ocean. Rescuers feared the fish would be flushed out to sea and difficult to find. But they caught several hundred more than they had aimed for.
The fish were loaded into coolers and ferried by truck to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and Santa Monica’s Heal the Bay Aquarium, where they’ve hunkered down ever since in comfort. In fact, their diets at the aquariums had to be scaled back because the fish were getting “chubby,” said Dagit, of the conservation district.
Fortune smiles on the lagoon
When the fish were plucked from the lagoon, it was far from certain they’d be able to return so soon. Watersheds scorched by fire can take years to recover. And the fish only live for about a year. “We were really worried. We did not think [the habitat] was going to be good enough,” Dagit said.
Then the breached sandbar closed and the lagoon started filling up with water, “and all of the sudden there was habitat.”
The lagoon is now about 2 meters deep — the deepest it’s been since the conservation district began monitoring it 30-plus years ago. Last week, Dagit said she kayaked on the roughly one-acre lagoon.
New beginnings
The watershed’s Southern California steelhead trout, many of which were rescued in a separate operation in January, are still unable to return home. The part of the creek they inhabit is still too damaged, but they appear to be thriving in their news digs.
In February, roughly 260 trout were transferred from a hatchery in Fillmore to a creek in Santa Barbara County. Two months later, they spawned — a process wildlife officials feared could have been disrupted by the trauma they endured. At the time, it was believed at least 100 baby trout were born.
None of the gobies reproduced in captivity, but some of the females were “gravid” — or full of eggs.
“With all the gravid ones that we have being released today … hopefully they’ll be able to have [their babies] out in their natural environment,” said Stacy Hammond, a senior aquarist at Aquarium of the Pacific, who helped care for the gobies during their stay at the facility.
Why the reintroduction matters
Tidewater gobies are a hardy fish, able to withstand extreme temperature and salinity changes. They can even slurp air from the water surface if conditions force them to. They also have developed a reputation for cuteness, borne of their beady eyes and diminutive size.
But their numbers plummeted amid habitat destruction from agricultural and coastal development, prompting their listing under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1994. The fish also are threatened by drought and invasive predators.
The gobies were first documented in Topanga Lagoon in 2001. They swam over from Malibu Lagoon — located about five and a half miles to the north — where scientists planted 53 of them in 1993, Dagit said. They fish thrived in Topanga — a 2022 population estimate for the lagoon was in the tens of thousands. It’s unknown where the figure stands after the fire, but recent surveys found there were still wild gobies. And the recent release adds to the tally.
The Topanga gobies comprise the biggest, most stable population in the Santa Monica Bay area, according to Dagit. Bustling population centers like that can be used to repopulate areas that blink out elsewhere.
Brenton Spies, a lecturer at Cal State University Channel Islands with goby expertise, said gobies play a critical role in the food chain. Removing them from an ecosystem can cause it to collapse. “It’s not just this one individual fish that we’re trying to save, it’s the health of these ecosystems,” he said at the fish release ceremony.
Going home
Before the gobies were released, Robert Dorame, tribal chair of the Gabrielino-Tongva Indians of California, led attendees in a blessing. He directed the group to face different directions.
“We are the stewards of the four directions, Indian or non-Indian, religious or no religion,” he said. “But we are all spiritual beings, so let’s make this a special day for the gobies.”
To acclimate the gobies to their new/old home, water from the lagoon was slowly added to two coolers where the fish were hanging out nearby. Once the right salinity and temperature was reached — roughly 1-2 parts per thousand and 66 degrees Fahrenheit respectively — the fish would be good to go.
In a large, white Igloo cooler, the gobies teemed in one corner, blending into rocks and sand that lined the bottom. They were transferred to buckets and personnel wearing waders carried them into the lagoon.
Someone threw fragrant sage as the fish disappeared into the water.
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