---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 20:22:33 -0500
From: Christopher Scharpf <ichthos at charm.net>
Reply-To: nanfa at aquaria.net
To: NANFA Mailing List <nanfa at aquaria.net>
Subject: NANFA-- 9 West Coast salmon hit endangered species list
FEDERAL FISHERIES AGENCY ADDS NINE WEST COAST SALMON
TO ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST
Action marks first time protection has extended to heavily populated areas
The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service today (March 16)
added nine populations of salmon and steelhead in Washington and Oregon,
including metropolitan Portland and Seattle, to the endangered species list
marking the first time federal protection has been extended to salmon found in
streams in heavily populated areas of the Pacific Northwest.
The Clinton Administration expects the move to encourage successful state and
local salmon conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest.
People -- not nature -- have created the conditions that have affected the
health of these fish. The endangered species listings are the result of such
factors as land-use and water-development projects that degrade watershed and
stream conditions critical to salmon survival, habitat loss, over-harvesting,
dam construction and operation, and certain hatchery practices.
The salmon populations listed, known as ESUs or evolutionary significant units,
range from the sockeye salmon in Washington's rugged Olympic Peninsula to
chinook salmon, the largest of any salmon, found in the heavily urbanized area
of Puget Sound. Those listed today are:
Four chinooks ESUs
Puget Sound chinook (threatened)
Lower Columbia River chinook (threatened)
Upper Columbia River spring-run chinook (endangered)
Upper Willamette River chinook (threatened)
Two chum ESUs
Hood Canal summer run chum (threatened)
Columbia River chum (threatened)
Two steelhead ESUS
Upper Willamette River steelhead (threatened)
Middle Columbia River steelhead (threatened)
One sockeye ESU
Ozette Lake sockeye (threatened)
At this time, no immediate regulations will apply to state and private
activities in the areas where salmon populations are listed as threatened.
However, because it is listed as an endangered species, any accidental or
incidental "take" of Upper Columbia River spring chinook would require a permit.
In the future, fisheries service staff will work closely with its partners to
develop "tailor-made" regulations that would include state and local
conservation initiatives. The fisheries service said that the listing decisions
would go into effect in two months.
The agency is deferring, for six months, its decision on four remaining chinook
salmon (ESUs): Snake River fall-run, southern Oregon and California coastal,
California Central Valley fall-run and California Central Valley spring-run
chinook. The fisheries service will use the six-month extension to resolve areas
of scientific disagreement about the ESUs. A final determination will be made in
September.
President Clinton's FY2000 budget proposal asks Congress for $100 million for
West Coast and Alaska salmon protection to help local and tribal efforts, some
of which are already underway in the three western states.
Under the Endangered Species Act, a species likely to become extinct is
categorized as endangered. A species likely to become endangered within the
foreseeable future is categorized as threatened.
Additional specific information related to this decision, including maps and
fact sheets, is available on the fisheries service's Northwest region Web site
at www.nwr.noaa.gov.
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