Claiming and Reclaiming 1: A snipe and a clam

The names of the California clapper rail and the Atlantic ribbed mussel give away their places of origin, yet both are permanent inhabitants, now, of the Delta.

Two kinds of story describe their interactions - a parable by Sun Tzu in The Art of War, and a scientific description from the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve. Both stories are indispensable, but the parable is the focus of this train of thought.

One wonders what Sun Tzu would have thought about the today’s debate over the complicated presence of invasive water hyacinth and native pennywort, or invasive striped bass and native delta smelt in the Delta. What opportunites would he see, as a fisherman looking for a catch?

For many, striped bass are regarded as naturalized citizens of the Delta, having earned their keep because they provide pleasure to so many sportfishermen. If their predatory habits lead them to consume some delta smelt, well, they’ve gotta eat, too.

Water hyacinth was brought to the Delta because it is a pretty, flowering ornamental, but it isn’t fun, and its congestive behavior makes it a threat to sportfishing access, irrigation, water supply, native plants and animals—so it must go.

Although an endangered subspecies, the California clapper rail’s disappearance would pose no direct threat to humans. But its tormentor, the Atlantic ribbed mussel and its exotic mollusk brethren do—even if they are tasty. The mollusks prolifically reproduce in dense colonies that clog irrigation infrastructure—therefore they must go. The endangered bird survives not because it is of value to humans, but because its antagonist is a utilitarian threat. Is that the thinking?

Delta smelt aren’t fun or pretty. Nor does their survival or extinction pose a threat to any utilitarian human interest. Extinction of the smelt poses only an existential threat, something that the bottom-line “fish versus people” constituencies can live with. Others try to counter with an argument that is not so dualistic but is no less true.

The interactions of native and invasive species are consequences of human transformations of the Delta dating back for more than 150 years. Levees are an invasive species interacting with subsidence, etc., after all. These interactions will never go away.

Managing these interactions is a cultural matter, informed by good science and empowered through, one hopes, democratic processes and public policies. There has been lots of work done by smart people on this management over the last 15 years, yet here the state finds itself, a clam and a snipe locked together. For how long?

Demagoguery about the future of striped bass (naturalized Delta citizen) and Atlantic ribbed mussels, zebra mussels and the like (illegal aliens, to be systematically deported if possible) is easy—But determining the future of the delta smelt will be a much more significant measure of Californians—is it a thing, or an idea, this “three-inch-long” fish?

In the meantime, will the clam get rain, or the snipe away, or, in the midst of their struggle, will a fisherman in the form of an earthquake or flood come along and take them and California out to sea?