Okay I admit it...I'm pretty agitated. As a general rule I figure the Department of Fish Game does the best they can with the resources at their disposal, but events that have taken place over the past week have left me questioning this belief.

On Tuesday, November 20 I was working at my home in Auburn when I got a call from renowned delta striper angler Mark Wilson. He tipped me off about the impending fish kill at Prospect Island that everyone is now talking about and related that he'd gotten the information from the owner of Cliff's Marina Bob McDaris.

Since the Sniffer's Managing Editor Dan Bacher typically handles conservation issues, I gave him a call at our Elk Grove office. As luck would have it, Dan was out to lunch, so I left Bob's phone number with our receptionist Eve and immediately called Sep Hendrickson to begin getting the word out about the situation at Prospect Island. Sep advised me to call the DFG's Caltip hotline and report the impending fish kill to them.

For those may be unfamiliar with Caltip, it is a 24 hour hotline that citizens can call to report the illegal killing or taking of fish or wildlife or incidents that involve polluting.

Now prior to November 20, I was well aware of what the aim of the Caltip hotline was, but I'd never called it to make a report. As I dialed the number I was working under the assumption that the DFG would be eager to hear what I had to say, but once a representative answered the phone it quickly became apparent that this wasn't the case. From the start the attitude and tone representative I spoke with made me feel as if I were bothering her rather than helping to uncover an impending fish kill.

After identifying myself as a journalist to the first representative and reporting the stranded fish, I was put on hold to speak with another representative. After holding for an extended period of time, the second representative came on the line. While I can't give exact quotes, the lady basically told me that DFG had been aware of the situation for two days, but that they were not doing anything.

At that point I pressed the lady for more information as to why the pumping was being allowed to continue. I explained to her that while I knew stripers are an introduced species, there were likely native and threatened fish such as white sturgeon and federally protected delta smelt trapped in the affected area too. I went and told her that while I wasn't a lawyer, I was certain that stranding protected native fish through pumping was a violation of some sort of DFG law or code.

Ultimately, the second representative took my phone number and told me that the warden in charge would return my call and explain the Prospect Island situation.

Well as I write this, 6 days have passed since I originally called Caltip and I am still waiting for that phone call. Today I spent about 30 minutes calling various branches of the DFG, listened to a number of different recordings, left my name and number on a couple of answering machines and I still haven't gotten a response.

Here at Fish Sniffer headquarters, we got word on November 23 that the DFG is launching a criminal investigation into the incident at Prospect Island. My question to the DFG is, "where were you guys for the past 3 days"?

I know DFG officials were on the scene. On November 21, Dan Bacher visited the fish kill site and quoted DFG warden Carolyn Djody as saying, "We had a call that there were fish dying on the island. This is a federal project, so the proposal to pump water out was reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It's not our project."

I contend that while the land belongs to the federal government and the levee restoration and pumping project were initiated by federal agencies the fish trapped behind that levee, be they stripers, native white sturgeon or federally protected delta smelt, belong to the people of California. Who is charged with protecting the fisheries and fish belong to the California taxpayers? You guessed it - it's the DFG.

I'm glad to see that they are now taking action. I wonder how many of the state's fish that were alive last Tuesday are dead today. Maybe I can get an answer to these questions when my phone calls are returned. I'm not holding my breath; after all I'm only a taxpayer concerned about the state's fisheries!