S.B. Fly Fishers Launching ‘Save Santa Barbara Steelhead’ Campaign
Sunday’s Town Hall Marks Beginning of Long-Term Conservation Effort for Endangered Trout
One of Santa Barbara’s oldest residents is nearly gone. Southern California steelhead trout, a mysterious fish that swims in our ocean and local streams and rivers, is at risk of extinction.
The Santa Barbara Flyfishers — who do recreational catch and release fishing — are trying to save it. On Sunday, March 9, the group will be holding a town hall meeting to launch their long-term campaign, “Save Santa Barbara Steelhead.”
“They’re worse off today than they’ve ever been,” said Dr. Mark Rockwell, the Flyfishers Conservation Chair and a retired chiropractor.
He calls the fish like they are: “beautiful, mysterious, and endangered.”
They’re mysterious because of their unusual ability to shapeshift from freshwater to saltwater fish, living out their first few years in rivers and creeks and then, for unknown reasons, going through a radical transformation to spend their adulthood in the ocean.
However, these peculiar rainbow trout have dramatically decreased in number. Today, Southern California steelhead are the rarest, most critically endangered steelhead population on the West Coast. Their habitats have been degraded and dammed, including in Santa Barbara County.
Though they were once abundant in the Santa Ynez River and local streams, their populations have plummeted from nearly 30,000 to a “mere handful, under 20 today,” Rockwell said. “In 2024, after two good water years, there were only between one and four adults that returned to Santa Ynez.”
Despite recovery efforts — such as removing fish passage barriers and restoring habitats — the fish have been slow to bounce back. “What people are trying to do is the right thing to do. It just isn’t going fast enough,” Rockwell said. “There are so many barriers and problems that are out there that you can’t get your arms around them.”
Wildfire and drought, for example, pose an ever-growing risk to Southern California populations. Just recently, personnel from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife rescued 271 Southern California steelhead from Topanga Creek in Los Angeles County, an area devastated by the Palisades Fire. Crews worked quickly to extract the fish before mudslides could flush ash and sentiment through their creek. Last month, the fish were relocated to their new digs in the Arroyo Hondo Creek on the Gaviota Coast.
The release was coordinated in partnership between The Land Trust, Fish and Wildlife, and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains (RCDSMM) and marked “an important step in the preservation of the region’s native fish populations and their habitats,” according to The Land Trust.
“We’ve been holding our breath for weeks to see if this delicate transfer would be successful,” said Meredith Hendricks, Executive Director of the Land Trust for Santa Barbara County. “We are so pleased to be able to share that the fish appear to have survived and are engaged in normal activities.”
By building a separate organization, called the Santa Barbara Steelhead Guardians, the Flyfishers want to support these kinds of efforts, from wildfire rescue missions to dam removals, while also promoting public awareness and supportive policy. Rockwell is drawing on his experience helping with dam removals at Klamath River in Northern California, which was completed last year to restore nearly 400 miles of habitat that steelhead and other species depend on.
Their ultimate goal is to, with the help of other organizations, become a voice for local steelhead populations and eventually see steelhead removed from state and federal endangered species lists once their numbers have rebounded. “It’s just the right thing to do,” Rockwell said.
Flyfishers boardmember John K. Grace, who is also helping spearhead the campaign, agreed. “I’m in the process of retiring, and I was thinking, ‘How do I do something that values future generations?’” he said. “Maybe this is my time to do something important.”
The town hall will be on Sunday, March 9, 1-3 p.m., at the Lobero Theatre. Admission is free. A panel will be held including experts from the Cachuma Project, California Trout, California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, ChannelKeeper, Environmental Defense Center, Koehler Winery, and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
For more information and to register, click here.
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