Homeless man jailed for poaching protected steelhead

[Spiel]

Homeless man jailed for poaching protected steelhead

 

 

Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009

David Sneed / San Luis Obispo Tribune

 

 

A 23-year-old transient was sentenced to 10 days in San Luis Obispo County Jail on Wednesday for catching and cooking a federally protected steelhead trout from San Luis Obispo Creek.

 

Victor Manuel Silva was convicted of illegally taking and possessing wildlife. Wildlife officials said the poaching was a blow to the species because the fish was an egg-carrying female that was killed before she had a chance to spawn.

 

Her eggs were strewn along the banks of the creek.

 

Silva was arrested Sunday. State Department of Fish and Game Warden Teri Hickey had responded to the area as a result of a tip.

 

When she arrived, she found a group of three or four homeless men camped out, cooking a large fish over a fire and getting ready to eat it.

 

"They had slices of lemon and a loaf of sourdough bread," DFG Lt. Dean Hileman said. "It was almost a meal fit for a king."

 

Silva admitted catching the fish from the creek. He had no identification and was arrested. Another man in the group, who had outstanding warrants, also was arrested.

 

Central Coast steelhead trout are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Fishing of any kind is prohibited in the creek.

 

Area streams teemed with steelhead a century ago, but habitat destruction, dams, pollution and low stream flows have reduced populations of the fish to a small fraction of their former numbers.

 

Various government agencies and conservation groups have spent millions of dollars rehabilitating Central Coast creeks in an attempt to improve steelhead habitat.

 

"Each fish really counts," Hileman said. "We are talking about a species that is so critical that some subspecies are in danger of going extinct."

 

Steelhead populations in Southern California are listed as endangered. They spend most of their lives in the ocean but return to coastal streams to spawn. Recent rains opened up some creeks to direct access to the ocean and steelhead are now beginning to move upstream to spawn.