[5] Enviros Want Oregon's Coastal Coho Stocks Back On The ESA List

Environmental and fishing groups say Oregon's coastal coho stocks should be relisted for protection under the Endangered Species Act, and are heading to court to make it happen.

The coho were delisted in January after federal policymakers agreed with an Oregon state review that said the stocks had the moxie to persist during downturns in ocean productivity.

But environmentalists say the coho still need protection because their numbers are declining again after a short-term boost. By 1998, the population had sagged to about 40,000 wild spawners, but rebounded to 265,000 fish in 2002.

The enviros say that the coho are returning in numbers that fall short of full recovery, but according to data released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the Oregon coastal spawner numbers were well over 130,000 fish in both 2004 and 2005, which was the fifth-highest return on record. In fact, returns over the past five years are the highest numbers seen since 1980.

Much of the good news comes from the fact that commercial and sport harvests of wild coho were drastically cut when stocks plummeted in the early 1990s. Spawner numbers were generally below 50,000 during the past 30 years, when harvest rates sometimes reached 80 percent or better.

Oregon state biologists said the low marine survivals of the 1990s were "unprecedented" in the past 50 years. During the 1990s, the coastal stocks also endured drought and a major flood event. But the biologists concluded that the fish's life cycle, population dynamics and structure, along with the broad geographic distribution of the species, reduced the likelihood of succumbing to a perfect storm of adverse environmental conditions.

Environmental groups don't agree. They called the bump in numbers since 2000 "a slight rebound." They cited a memo from NMFS' own scientists expressing concern about the direction of the stocks over the next few years, and said removing federal protection would strip safeguards from a third of prime coho habitat found on federal lands.

"Now is not the time to slack off on habitat protections for coho salmon, or we risk another Klamath-type crisis," said Glen Spain, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "Eliminating these protections shifts the conservation burden onto the backs of fishermen, without protecting the rivers and streams the coho depend on." Without federal protection, he said there was no assurance that the coho would recover or that heavy fishing restrictions would ever be lifted.

But Oregon has pumped $20 million to $30 million annually into coho protection since 1997, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said in January when the population was delisted. He also cited the contributions of private forest and agriculture landowners, watershed councils, local governments and other organizations working together to improve coho populations along the state's coast.

The groups suing over the coho delisting are represented by Patti Goldman and Jan Hasselman of Earthjustice, and include the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Pacific Rivers Council, Trout Unlimited, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Native Fish Society, and Umpqua Watersheds. -B. R.

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