Conservation groups are suing NOAA Fisheries after the agency missed the one-year deadline for ruling on a petition seeking Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for spring-run Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
“These iconic fish are at risk of disappearing from our coastal rivers forever if [NOAA Fisheries] doesn’t act quickly,” Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Legal Fellow Jeremiah Scanlan said in a statement. “Spring-run Chinook salmon badly need protections, but instead, the agency has taken the lazy river approach and drifted past its own deadlines.”
CBD, Native Fish Society, and Umpqua Watersheds filed a petition seeking ESA protections for spring-run Oregon Coast Chinook salmon in 2022; they were later joined by Pacific Rivers in adding Washington spring-run Chinook to the petition in 2023. The groups argue that spring-run Chinook are biologically distinct from fall-run Chinook, which are more abundant in the Pacific Northwest and dangerously close to extinction.
"Umpqua Watersheds has been tracking this population for decades and has never seen the wild spring Chinook population even close to its designated viability number for survival,” Stanley Petrowski, a member of Umpqua Watersheds, said in a statement. “The science is clear. This unique, ecologically significant species is going extinct."
Conservationists also point out that spring-run Chinook are important to the local ecosystem and make up an important source of prey for endangered southern resident killer whales.
"The watersheds of Washington developed with and continue to need spring-run Chinook," Pacific Rivers Chair Michael Morrison said in a statement. "Protections for the imperiled spring-run Chinook will ensure healthy watersheds for present and future generations."
Despite acknowledging in 2023 that ESA protections may be warranted, NOAA Fisheries has missed the deadline for making a determination on the petition.
On 18 February, the four conservation groups behind the petition sued NOAA Fisheries in the District Court of Oregon, asking the court to find the agency in violation of the ESA and require it to issue a 12-month finding.
