I know I’ve posted far too many videos lately, but we’re getting a host of activity at the beaver dam that can’t be ignored. Take this fish which was filmed behind the primary dam this weekend. He’s definately not one of the sacramento sucker we saw earlier. When I saw this footage I thought incredulously he actually looked like a rainbow trout. Doubting my eyes I sent it around to the experts.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=SGEoALHmAYQ]
Friend Mike Vukman of Urban Creeks Council sent the video to Dr. Alice Rich of AAR, and she wrote back the following:
It looks to be a rainbow trout (i.e., resident steelhead), although I would have a better idea if I saw it in person. As you know, NOAA Fisheries doesn’t differentiate between the rainbow trout and steelhead unless there is a geographical barrier, which there would not be for this creek down so low. So, by default, it looks to be a steelhead. The only other large fish that I know of in that system would be pikeminnow (a cigar-shaped minnow which this is not), Sacramento sucker (which this is not). And, someone had said they had sighted carp in AC, but this is certainly not a carp.
So there you have it. Steelhead back in Alhambra Creek! Interesting thing about the Rainbow trout is that there are two species: one that lives its life in fresh water, and one that’s “anadromous” meaning it has to make it out to the ocean and returns to fresh water to spawn. The anadromous version of the Rainbow trout is better known as the Steelhead.
There was some discussion of whether this particular fellow looks like he’s moving slowly or working hard to breath, perhaps because of the water temperature. He is sitting in the shallows, (I suppose to feed) and the cooler water is down deeper. There is research saying that Beaver dams can negatively impact trout by raising the water temperature. Hmm. Take the good with the bad, I’d say. When’s the last time that anyone took photos of steelhead in Alhambra Creek? Surely its been decades.
Keep looking! It’s worth a dam.
