U.S. Protection for Chinook Salmon Urged : Wildlife: Surveys show dramatic decline in number of winter-run fish. Federal action could severely constrain operation of water projects.

Citing new surveys that show the winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River perilously close to extinction, a group of fishery biologists is preparing to petition federal authorities to declare the fish an endangered species.

In a move that could ultimately put severe constraints on the operation of state and federal water projects, the California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society said it will urge government officials to act quickly to invoke the powers of the federal Endangered Species Act to protect the rapidly declining subspecies of salmon.

Once a thriving population that numbered 117,000 adult fish in 1969, the winter-run Chinook in the Sacramento River dropped to 3,962 adults in 1985, 533 in 1989 and 441 in 1990. Preliminary surveys this year show only an estimated 88 to 200 Chinook returned to spawn in the Sacramento River.

“The condition has gone steadily downward,” said Don Erman, president of the society’s California-Nevada chapter. “There are a lot of people shaking their heads. There isn’t much time left. We’ve got to do something more than what we’ve been doing.”

The winter-run Chinook, already classified as “threatened” by federal officials, is considered unique because of the timing of its migration pattern. The adult winter-run passes through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from January through March and then moves upstream into the Sacramento River where the salmon spawn from mid-April through mid-August before they die, ending a three- to four-year life cycle.

Government biologists say the winter-run Chinook, more than any of the other three salmon subspecies that spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries, has been affected by the operation of the state and federal water projects. The other three salmon subspecies--the spring-, summer- and fall-run Chinook--have suffered declines but are not as threatened as the winter-run.

A Department of Water Resources report issued in March said the decline has been blamed primarily on the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, which in some years blocked many salmon from moving upstream to their favorite spawning grounds just below Shasta Dam.

At the spawning grounds themselves, biologists said salmon eggs often could not survive because of high water temperatures caused by the diversion of too much water. As human demands for water caused the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to draw down Shasta reservoir, the water inside heated up so that when it was released, it was too hot for the salmon.

“The population is so close to extinction that we’re saying that it will not survive two more generations or to about the year 2000,” said Peter Alexander, conservation chairman for the American Fisheries Society.

National Marine Fisheries Service officials said that, once they get a petition for endangerment status, they launch a review to determine whether the species is indeed endangered.

Jim Lecky, chief of the service’s protected species management division, said he considered the latest survey results on the winter-run “premature,” and wanted to conduct a more exhaustive study before he concludes whether the fish is approaching extinction.

While he acknowledged that the winter-run has been in a prolonged decline, he said it has been difficult this year to determine just how many are returning to spawn. In past years, he said, the populations were calculated from a count of the salmon that climbed up artificial fish ladders at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam. But this year, to prevent any further decline of the winter-run, he said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation agreed to leave dam gates open so the fish would have easier access to spawning grounds and would not have to use the ladders--man-made steps that allow fish to negotiate their way over an obstruction.

Officials said new measurements will probably be taken from aerial surveys of the spawning grounds.

If the winter-run salmon does join other species like the California condor and the spotted owl on the endangered list, Lecky said, the National Marine Fisheries Service will have broad latitude in protecting the fish. Federal and state water projects, which have already had to change their operations to accommodate the winter-run, may have to curtail pumping at certain times or adjust reservoir releases to protect the salmon in the future, he said.

In recent years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had to draw down more water from Folsom Reservoir on the American River in order to keep more in Shasta for the salmon, said Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the bureau. He said when officials do release Shasta water during the spawning season, it bypasses their power-generating facilities so it will be colder for the salmon.

But many critics blame the National Marine Fisheries Service for waiting too long in considering whether to force the Bureau of Reclamation to alter its operations to protect the winter-run.

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Assns., said both federal and state water projects continued to make full deliveries during the early years of the current drought. As a result, he said, the river flows declined and water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta suffered.

During “four of the five years of drought, the Bureau of Reclamation made full deliveries and fish and wildlife took it in the shorts,” Grader said.

Grader said he feared that if the winter-run is declared endangered, federal officials will take action against fisherman rather than against the federal and state water projects that have caused the decline. The fisheries service has already shortened fishing seasons to protect threatened species like the winter-run Chinook salmon.

“I don’t know if it’s going to gain us that much,” he said. “I’m nervous about how the bureaucracy will handle it. I can see the National Marine Fisheries Service deciding to take the easy way out by closing down the fishermen.”