Randy Benthin

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  www.redbluffdailynews.com/ci_13043906 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/12/2009    Last Visited: 8/12/2009  

  As the DFG moves to estimate the salmon count through tagging, marking dead fish and pooling information between fish hatcheries and tributaries, it expects to find less than 122,000 in the 2009 fall run, said Randy Benthin, a senior fishery biologist for the DFG.
  ...
  a drought in the late 70s, during which water was distributed without regard to the fish, winter run chinook salmon passing through the diversion dam dropped from 24,735 in 1977-78 to 2,339 the next year, Benthin said.
  
  They went ahead and gave full (water) deliveries to all their customers, and so the river really heated up when the eggs were in the gravel, and that killed off most of them, he said.

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  www.redding.com/news/2009/may/07/huge-sturggeon-surface - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/7/2009    Last Visited: 5/9/2009  

  Randy Benthin, senior fisheries biologist for the Department of Fish and Game in Redding, said the fish Frost handled was a white sturgeon.
  ...
  Benthin said for a brief time, two decades back, the lake was stocked with hatchery-raised sturgeon.
  ...
  But white sturgeon, which can live more than 100 years and grow to well over 1,000 pounds, have been unable to spawn in the lake since the mid-1960s when powerhouses erected on the Pit River cut them off from their spawning grounds, Benthin said.
  ...
  All of the sturgeon in Lake Shasta outgrew that size limit long ago, Benthin said.
  
  That's why Benthin and others in the DFG's Redding office have been working to see if there's a way to reintroduce hatchery-raised fish into the lake, in the hopes they would be small enough so that fishermen could keep their catch.
  
  But there are concerns from state biologists that new fish would spread the white sturgeon iridovirus, a germ that has infected the fish in hatcheries, Benthin said.
  
  "We haven't yet proven for sure if it exists in the wild," Benthin said of the virus.
  
  Meanwhile, with so few fish left in the lake, Benthin can't resist the chance to study Frost's sturgeon.

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  www.fishbio.com/home/16-news/6247-salmon-count-worries- - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/12/2009    Last Visited: 10/12/2009  

  As the DFG moves to estimate the salmon count through tagging, marking dead fish and pooling information between fish hatcheries and tributaries, it expects to find less than 122,000 in the 2009 fall run, said Randy Benthin, a senior fishery biologist for the DFG.
  
  Of those, as few as 5 percent may be jacks, which help the department forecast the 2010 fall run and determine whether fishing will be allowed.
  
  Fish counts may pick up when the Red Bluff Diversion Dam's system of diverting water is replaced by a water pumping station, but abrupt drops in salmon populations can also come from changes in water temperature.
  
  a drought in the late 70s, during which water was distributed without regard to the fish, winter run chinook salmon passing through the diversion dam dropped from 24,735 in 1977-78 to 2,339 the next year, Benthin said.
  
  They went ahead and gave full (water) deliveries to all their customers, and so the river really heated up when the eggs were in the gravel, and that killed off most of them, he said.

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  www.battle-creek.net/currents_3rd_qtr_09.html - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 10/18/2009  

  As the DFG moves to estimate the salmon count through tagging, marking dead fish and pooling information between fish hatcheries and tributaries, it expects to find less than 122,000 in the 2009 fall run, said Randy Benthin, a senior fishery biologist for the DFG.
  
  Of those, as few as 5 percent may be jacks, which help the department forecast the 2010 fall run and determine whether fishing will be allowed.
  
  Fish counts may pick up when the Red Bluff Diversion Dam's system of diverting water is replaced by a water pumping station, but abrupt drops in salmon populations can also come from changes in water temperature.
  
  Because of a drought in the late 70s, during which water was distributed without regard to the fish, winter run chinook salmon passing through the diversion dam dropped from 24,735 in 1977-78 to 2,339 the next year, Benthin said.
  
  They went ahead and gave full (water) deliveries to all their customers, and so the river really heated up when the eggs were in the gravel, and that killed off most of them, he said.

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  www.redding.com/news/2009/oct/16/dfg-taking-comments-on - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 10/17/2009  

  Randy Benthin, a senior fishery biologist for DFG's regional office in Redding, said the comments could steer the new guidelines and until then, he didn't want to speculate about them.
  
  "I can't prejudge what the outcome will be," he said.

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  www.redding.com/news/2008/mar/16/mud-snails-other-invas - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/17/2008    Last Visited: 3/17/2008  

  The mussels are filter feeders, straining nutrients out the water system that small aquatic animals and plants rely on, knocking out the foundation of the food chain for many fish, said Randy Benthin, senior fishery biologist at DFG's Redding office.They also can clog pipes and ruin boat motors as they take over a body of water.
  
  Quagga mussels, cousins of the zebra mussel, were first found in the state early last year in Lake Havasu along the Colorado River.They've also been found in other reservoirs along the river and the worry is they could cling to boats and make it to other water bodies around the state, including Lake Shasta.
  
  "There is a real risk of them getting up here," Benthin said.
  
  The danger of boats bringing in the mussels led officials in Ventura County to close a recreational reservoir to outside boats earlier this month.In January, zebra mussels were found in San Justo Reservoir - the farthest north zebra mussels have been found in the state - about 260 miles south of Redding near Salinas.
  
  Benthin said to avoid spreading the mussels boaters should inspect the bottoms of their boats after pulling them out of a lake, and also then let them dry out for a month if they've been used them in contaminated waters.

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  www.localnews1.com/1state%26localbriefs/9_21_07/mobfish - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/21/2007    Last Visited: 12/1/2007  

  I spoke with Randy Benthin, top fisheries biologist of the DFG Office in Redding about this a week ago.He told me that was not the case and sent me copy of the 2000/2005 Eagle Lake Angler Opinion Survey, which although marked as a "DRAFT" was dated July 2007.
  ...
  Benthin is welcome to rebut anything said here.

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  www.localnews1.com/1state%26localbriefs/9_14_07/mobfish - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/14/2007    Last Visited: 12/1/2007  

  I've also talked with Randy Benthin of the DFG in Redding about this issue.Benthin has promised to take action if the Water Board ever declares that a threat to aquatic life exists.

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  www.cacoastkeeper.org/headlines.php?func=articleDetail& - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/30/2007    Last Visited: 1/14/2008  

  Usually, the creek's run is between 50,000 and 100,000 fish at this time; so far, there have only been 20,000 spawning chinook, said Randy Benthin, a senior fisheries biologist for Fish and Game.
  
  And on the Yuba River, only 54 salmon have returned so far, down from a total of 3,842 fish in 2003.

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