Contact:  Brian Gorman                  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
           Lori Arguelles                August 11, 1997

The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service today announced Endangered Species Act protection for five populations of Pacific coast steelhead, and urged western states to become active participants in finding ways to best manage the impacts of the listing.

"There is no dispute that these fish are in serious trouble," said Terry D. Garcia, acting commerce department assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "Our commitment to salmon and steelhead conservation is clear: we must restore these magnificent fish. The law requires it, common sense calls for it, and our own sense of what constitutes a strong economy and healthy ecosystem dictate it."

"Extinction is not an option," Garcia added. "Our interest is in restoring these fish by using the enormous flexibility of the Endangered Species Act to enlist a full array of options to get the job done. This is an opportunity to innovate and to explore new approaches. Whether and to what extent we seize these opportunities is the choice that we collectively face. We invite the states to seize this opportunity and to work with us to find creative solutions as we take the next steps required by the ESA process."

Listed today as "endangered," meaning they are at risk of becoming extinct in the foreseeable future, are steelhead in the Upper Columbia River from the Yakima River upstream to Chief Joseph Dam, and in Southern California from the Santa Maria River to just south of Malibu Creek, north of Los Angeles.

Listed as "threatened," meaning they are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future, are steelhead in the Snake River Basin (encompassing parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon), Central California Coast and the South-Central California Coast.

In addition, the fisheries service said it would defer for six months a decision on five other steelhead populations in Oregon, Washington and California because there is considerable scientific disagreement about the status of the stocks.

The fisheries service also announced it would extend the effective date of the listing to 60 days from today, to give states time to make changes to bring them into agreement with the new listing.

Although an Endangered Species Act listing brings with it federal protection and a requirement that all other federal agencies avoid any activity that may further jeopardize the species, Garcia said today's action is "an open invitation to all four states to take advantage of the built-in flexibility of the federal species protection law."

Garcia added, "Last April, we took advantage of that flexibility when we embraced Oregon's salmon conservation plan, and refrained from listing coho along the state's central and northern coast."

In letters to the governors of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California, sent today by the fisheries service's Northwest and Southwest regional administrators, the agency urged a state-federal partnership in developing conservation plans to recover Pacific salmon and steelhead.

"These plans," the letters said, "will need to include hatchery reform measures to protect the diversity and integrity of naturally spawning populations, harvest constraints to ensure adequate spawning escapements, and habitat measures to protect and restore the watersheds that support Pacific salmon and steelhead."

Because there is no commercial fishing for steelhead, the most direct impact will likely be felt by sport fishers later this year, when some rules go into effect prohibiting intentionally catching listed steelhead. The agency said it is likely that fishermen who accidentally catch wild steelhead while fishing for other fish would simply be required to immediately return them unharmed to the water.

The letters to the governors cited a range of causes for steelhead decline and, in fact, salmon decline in general that would have to be addressed. They included timber harvest, agriculture, water diversions, hydropower operations, gravel mining, urbanization, hatchery practices and fishing.

Just one year ago, the fisheries service proposed all 10 steelhead populations for possible Endangered Species Act listings. Only 15 distinctive populations remain on the Pacific coast.