The City of Bakersfield announced Tuesday it was cutting back Kern River flows for a maintenance project. But the hundreds of dead and dying fish found Friday near the Stockdale Highway bridge suggest water had already been ratcheted back. It’s unknown when flows through Bakersfield might return. The rapidity of the river’s dewatering and breadth of the ensuing carnage elicited gasps from California State University, Bakersfield Biology Professor Rae McNeish, PhD, and two students early Friday morning as they clambered over sand bars that had been under water just two days prior.