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"A little fish is at the center of a major political power struggle between environmentalists and farmers in the Central Valley.Scientists were on the San Joaquin River Thursday tracking the number of endangered Delta smelt.\u00A0Watch report:\u00A0Farmers, biologists battle over fish in San Joaquin River\"The population numbers are plummeting year by year,\" said Paul Miklos, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Miklos told KCRA 3 on Thursday the smelt \"have severely declined since the 1960s and 1980s.\"\"Historically, the smelt population has gone from hundreds of thousands,\" Miklos explained.But now, he said, \"we're looking at tens of thousands.\"The Delta smelt is a 3-inch fish, now at the center of a political power struggle between environmentalists and farmers.\"It's about the biggest water grab in history and running people out of water to protect this little fish,\" said U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican from Visalia.It's a fight over fish versus farms from the halls of Congress to the California Delta.\"We have put fish, we have put the environment, above people, and we need to reevaluate that,\" said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau.Scientists are trying to figure out how to protect the Delta smelt, an endangered fish, without harming California agriculture.For the next week, fish and wildlife experts will be doing their special survey of the Delta smelt population, to see if those tiny little fish are being drawn into giant water pumps near Tracy.At full throttle, those pumps are like magnets for the Delta smelt, grinding them into fish bait.\"They could move very quickly towards the pumps,\" said Steve Martarano, a spokesman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.\"We want to make sure that we know exactly where they are so we can make that decision,\" Martarano told KCRA 3.A decision to turn off the pumps can save the fish but cut off water deliveries to central and southern California farmers.That hasn't happen yet this year because of the drought, but California's economy and environment are waiting on big findings involving a tiny, little fish.Because of the lack of rain, the Delta smelt have been nowhere near those big pumps in Tracy that often cause their demise.There are currently no water restrictions, but that can change depending on the weather."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.kcra.com/article/battle-brewing-over-california-s-delta-smelt/6411400>