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7 <br />The need for a new classification of "experimental introduction" is <br />needed to resolve the political objectives inherent in transplanting <br />endangered and threatened fishes. <br />California Department of Fish and Game: Phil Pister <br />In the absence of Steve Nicola, who heads up California's nongame <br />aquatic function, Phil Pister reported that California has a staff <br />comprising a coordinator, two nongame fish biologists, a threatened trout <br />biologist, an invertebrate zoologist, and two herpetologists. This is <br />exclusive of regional biologists who spend much of their time on nongame <br />management. Staff expenditures total about $250,000 annually, and <br />$100,000 is spent annually by the regions. These figures include <br />contractual funds and temporary help. Before Proposition 13 passed, we <br />had hoped to add one biologist to the nongame staff and one biologist to <br />each of the Department's five inland regions. However, Governor Brown's <br />hiring freeze prevented this. <br />California law directs the Department (among other things) to strive <br />for "the maintenance of sufficient populations of all species of aquatic <br />organisms to insure their continued existence". This is a staggering <br />mandate, but we are doing our best to achieve it in the face of very <br />difficult curcumstances. <br />We have noted a 5-10 year gap between the recognition of an impending <br />(or existing) problem and our ability to structure and fund a management <br />program to handle it. It was this very situation which caused the formation <br />of the Desert Fishes Council. California Fish and Game also coordinates <br />an interagency Committee on Threatened Trout to handle threatened native <br />trout species within the state.