Fish Species Examples
The previously mentioned estuarine species delta smelt is a small, slender-bodied fish with a typical adult size of 2-3 inches that is found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin estuary. Historically, it was one of the most common species in the Estuary, however, the population declined dramatically in the early 1980's. Because they only live one year, have a limited diet, and only within a narrow salinity range, Delta smelt are considered environmentally sensitive (14).
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| Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) wfcb.ucdavis.edu | Delta smelt in the San Francisco Bay Estuary (14) |
| The southern part of the estuary is home to popular warmwater gamefish such as largemouth bass, bluegill and black crappie, as well as carp, goldfish, inland silverside, threadfin shad and golden shiner (7). |  |
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| Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) www.flmnh.ufl.edu | Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) www.lake-berryessa.com |
| Pacific herring and northern anchovy range through all parts of the Estuary. These fish are shiny, siver-side fish which usually exhibit schooling behavior (7). |  |
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| Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) wdfw.wa.gov | Pacific Herring in the San Francisco Bay Estuary (14) |
Leopard sharks are found primarily in the more marine areas, but are resident with some movement out of the Bay during the fall. Concern over the potential for overfishing lead to the implementation of size and bag limits in 1991 (14). |
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| Leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) psrc.mlml.calstate.edu |
| Many of the estuary's anadromous fish have been depleted in recent decades. Historically, more than half a million Chinook salmon returned each year from the ocean to spawn in the estuary. Currently, however, the number is dramatically lower and the winter-run chinook salmon was listed as endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act in 1990 (2, 7). The number of striped bass, a highly prized fish to recreational anglers, has decreased from about four million in the 1960s to just over half a million currently. Because of this depletion, the present population is primarily maintained from hatchery stocks (2). |  |
| Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) wildernessclassroom.com |
