Delta Blues Now Available Online

The documentary Delta Blues is now available here for streaming online and to all mobile devices for $4.99:

http://vimeo.com/ondemand/deltablue/.

DVD Available

After a film festival run and educational sales window, Delta Blues is available for purchase here for $14.95.

Federal judge disagrees on delta smelt plan

New ruling from Judge Wanger on salinity levels and the Delta Smelt. Two things not mentioned: Wanger - who's made most if not all significant rulings about Delta water flows and the ESA - is retiring. Also, no mention of the role of climate change in increasing salinity.

Here's the article from the Fresno Bee.

LA Times on the Delta Smelt

 A trip into the Delta with scientist Peter Moyle in search of the Delta Smelt. We filmed one of these research trips and an interview with Moyle for Delta Blues. On our day on the boat, the trawls brought up a nice haul of small stripers and split tail, but no Smelt. Moyle and his team hadn't seen one all year. We also filmed at the Smelt lab described in the piece.

See the Bay Area premiere of the film at the San Francisco Green Film Festival on March 5th. Click here for more details.

2009 another bad year for Delta ecosystem

It's not just smelt and salmon in decline. The numbers cited at the end of this article are startling.

We went on one of those fish trawling trips in the Delta with Peter Moyle. Look for it in the upcoming documentary.

Interior Secretary Salazar Responds...

...to the Wall Street Journal's editorial on the Delta's problems. Their take: It's all about the smelt.

Here's the original WSJ editorial.
Here's Salazar's response.

New rules will cut delta water pumping by up to 33 percent

This article describes the release of the long-awaited biological opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerning the future of the Delta Smelt.

Additional water cuts to the Central Valley and water rationing in parts of California now seem likely unless Northern California receives record snow and rainfall this winter.

Environmentalists called Monday's news overdue.

"The delta smelt is a bellwether for the health of the delta," said Doug Obegi, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco. "What has happened to the smelt is indicative of what has happened to salmon and other species. We have increased pumping from the delta over the past decade and seen dramatic reductions in their numbers."

Others called the order a travesty.

"California's primary water supply has just taken another big hit," said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, an association of 27 farm and city water districts.

SF Chronicle coverage here

Scientists breed smelt in case species becomes extinct in Delta

Matt Weiser, the Sacramento Bee's excellent environmental reporter, writes about the effort by UC Davis scientists to breed endangered Delta smelt in case they go extinct in the near (or long-term) future due to the environmental mess in the Delta.