Today NOAA fisheries announced its decision to restore federal Endangered Species Act protection as a “threatened species” for Oregon Coastal coho salmon. The agency, charged with salmon and steelhead conservation, had been under a court order to reconsider its 2006 decision not to list the Oregon Coastal coho. Trout Unlimited was among a group of fishing and conservation groups that sued to force a relisting.
(Floy tagged Oregon Coastal coho, released unharmed.) Photo Credit: Matt Stansberry
The agency was forced to reconsider its decision after Trout Unlimited prevailed in court, arguing that agency reliance on Oregon’s newly developed low abundance paradigm did not meet the requirement that agency listing determinations be made on the basis of the best available science.
To grossly simplify the state and federal position, a listing was not warranted because coho are particuarly resilient and are able to rebound from periods of low abundance. In other words, a small number of spawning adults can beget a large number of spawning adults three years later. The state asserted that smolt survival as a percentage increased in the absence of competition from other smolts and habitat can only carry a certain number of smolts no matter how many hatch. Second, the state asserted that favorable ocean conditions increase the percentage of smolts surviving to spawn as adults. Conservation groups saw the situation otherwise.
The state and NOAA made their claim in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Oregon Coastal coho populations have crashed over the last 100 or so years. Historically, the Siuslaw produced between 200,000 to 400,000 coho anually. These days we are lucky to get 20,000 . . . the fish are limping along at 5%-10% of historic numbers but things are going great, really.
I guess the court helped the agency to change its mind.
