Comment on FR Doc # 2011-05424

During summer and fall in the years 1996 through 2000, while working as a subcontractor to Merritt Smith Consulting on behalf of the Sonoma County Water Agency, I conducted fish surveys in the Russian River estuary near Jenner by beach seine and otter trawl as part of a study of the impacts of the practice of artificially breaching the mouth when it was closed by a sand bar. Small numbers of longfin smelt (2 to 12 individuals) were captured by otter trawl in the years 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. According to Peter Moyle (U.C. Davis), who confirmed the identification of the first ones captured in 1997, this was the first known record of longfin smelt in the Russian River. No longfin smelt were captured by beach seine. The Water Agency has continued the annual surveys by seine and purse seine since 2001, but I do not know whether or not they have continued capturing longfin smelt.