Local, State Officials Target Alleged Steelhead Poaching

On the heels of allegations that students were caught fishing endangered steelhead under the Park Avenue bridge near Sycamore Park on Sunday, Mill Valley Police and California Department of Fish and Game officials plan to step up enforcement and educational outreach about the ban on fishing for steelhead in local creeks.

DFG Captain Steve Riske said his agency was contacted Sunday by members of the local environmental group Mill Valley Streamkeepers, who claimed that two 10- to 11-year-old boys were caught fishing for endangered steelhead in the creek, which is part of the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio Creek system.

Riske said DFG Game Warden Jerrad Waney went to the site a few days later but he didn’t catch anyone fishing. He did, however, confiscate what Riske called “materials that would indicate that fishing may have been occurring there.”

Riske said his department intends to increase its patrols of that area in an effort to prevent steelhead poaching. He also said his agency is looking to step up its education outreach about steelhead protections in the area. He said he planned to reach out to Brooke Halsey’s Tiburon Salmon Institute as a partner in doing so within local schools next year.

Streamkeepers board member Joyce Britt said she was tipped off by a neighbor in the area that boys were fishing there and that she confronted them. Britt said the boys “defiantly refused to stop netting and killing them, throwing back already dead ones.” She said one of the boys said, “They’re just fish.” Britt said she didn't see them with any fish.

Streamkeepers immediately sent out a press release alleging that the children had fished, netted and killed “dozens of federally and state listed threatened protected steelhead.”

Riske said his agency wouldn’t investigate the matter further unless it was able to catch someone in the act.

Britt appeared before the Mill Valley City Council Monday to ask city officials to step up their enforcement and educational outreach efforts in conjunction with Fish and Game.

“This is a species that is struggling to survive,” Britt said.

According to Streamkeepers, the steelhead population in the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio Creek system has been decimated, citing Department of Fish and Game surveys.

“That is very unfortunate and raises the need for greater awareness of our resources and the regulations to protect those resources,” City Manager Jim McCann replied, noting that local police would follow up with DFG about getting signs posted in that area about state and local laws against fishing for steelhead.