As many of you know, last Wednesday afternoon the Apple Growers Ice & Cold Storage building on West Beach Street in Watsonville went up in flames. The building burned until Saturday. Fire fighters poured millions of gallons of water onto the site and stopped the fire from spreading, but most of that water, some foam, and run-off from the burning building went through the City's storm drains into Watsonville Slough near the Manabe-Ow property.

As a result, we have a large-scale fish die-off. Certainly hundreds, perhaps 1000 fish or more along Watsonville Slough are dead or dying. Watsonville Wetlands Watch staff and volunteers are working on this, and we want to let you know what we're doing

Watch staff and members are reviewing the area for damages to wildlife, testing water quality, and contacting local and state officials to analyze the impacts on our slough system.

Jose Segura from "Si
Se Puede" helps City
of Watsonville with
fishkill cleanup.

The good news is that damages, so far, do not seem to have spread far downstream, and we've found no dead birds, so perhaps whatever killed the fish is not moving up the food chain. Most likely, the fish died when oxygen levels in the water dropped below tolerable levels. City testing has confirmed that dissolved oxygen levels dropped dramatically. The local warden for the California Department of Fish and Game stated that he believes the impacts are over. Watch staff found dead fish as far downstream as Lee Road, just west of HWY 1. If toxics made it into the slough, which we don't know, and were to travel further downstream, they could affect more sensitive species such as our federal and state-listed threatened Red-legged frogs and larger bird populations of American white pelican, ospreys, or other bird species. We have seen dead bull frog tadpoles, and likely some other aquatic life has been affected.

Jonathan Pilch, Director of Restoration, and Craig Breon, Executive Director, are in contact with City officials and the California Department of Fish and Game. We would like to know what killed the fish and other aquatic species and whether there might be a larger or long-term threat to the slough ecosystem. Meanwhile, Noëlle Antolin, Director of Education, is working with Watch volunteers to test water quality along Watsonville, Struve, and Harkins Sloughs. We have only limited water quality testing abilities, and no ability to test for toxicity in fish, so we will be urging the government to do more sophisticated tests.

This fishkill exemplifies an important lesson--pollution from almost anywhere in our watershed can affect our sloughs. The fire was not directly adjacent to the slough, thus most pollutants would have entered the waterway through the storm drains (and some through the air). Perhaps, in working with the City and other regional officials, we can look at ways that the impacts from future fires on the sloughs can be minimized.

We'll keep you informed. If you have any questions or comments, please contact our Executive Director at craig@watsonvillewetlandswatch.org.