Photos: Searching for an endangered species in the Los Angeles River
Robert Blankenship tries to unhook a sock he caught in the Los Angeles River. A group of more than 20 people spent five hours taking a fish sample near the mouth of the river, hoping to find the endangered steelhead trout. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
Volunteers Delmar Lathers and Crystal Garcia slog through bubbling muck that smelled like rotten eggs, dragging a seine net to collect samples from the L.A. River. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
Discarded shopping carts, broken concrete slabs and trash in the Los Angeles River have become habitat for a variety of species, many of them invasive. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
Richard Brody, a volunteer with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, carries a transect tape through the L.A. River to map habitat. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Documenting even one steelhead in the heavily industrialized lower L.A. River would touch off a period of intense scrutiny and possibly tighter federal protections. Above, expedition leader Rosi Dagit, center, handles a seine net with help from Lizzy Montgomery and Delmar Lathers. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
“If we get a steelhead, we’ll treat it as a marvelous emergency,” said biologist Rosi Dagit, right. Following federal protocol, the fish would quickly be photographed, measured and returned to the river. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles River’s last steelhead trout was seen in 1948, but a passionate group, including Richard Brody and Steve Williams, are hoping to spot any sign of the endangered species. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
