Sockeye Salmon Placed Under U.S. Protection

The Snake River sockeye salmon, once so abundant that it churned the waters in its Idaho spawning run, was formally declared an endangered species Thursday, requiring a recovery program with potentially enormous economic repercussions.

Coming seven months after a preliminary decision to extend protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, the move was widely anticipated because only four of the fish made the 900-mile journey from the sea to their Idaho spawning sites this year.

Under the law, the National Marine Fisheries Service had until next April to reach a decision. But a spokesman said that scientific data in hand made it pointless to delay the step. The Fisheries Service already was facing a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Conservation League and the Northwest Resources Information Center, seeking to force an emergency listing.

Once providing a primary food source for miners and native Americans throughout the Snake River basin, the sockeyes’ numbers have been decimated by hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The dams are barriers to mature fish returning from the sea to spawn in Idaho’s Redfish Lake but more importantly they prevent the fingerlings hatched in the fresh water from successfully making their journey to the Pacific--killing them in turbines or fatally delaying their arrival to salt water.

Efforts to save the fish are expected to require significant changes in the operation of several of the dams, including regulation of the flow through the dams generating the cheap electricity that has provided the foundation for economic development in the Pacific Northwest.

Announcing the decision at a Seattle press conference, Marine Fisheries Regional Director Rolland Schmitten said that the economic burden of saving the species will fall on agricultural interests, the sports and commercial fishing industries, and commercial and private users of electricity. He pointedly suggested that the issue will be far different from the spotted owl case, in which the repercussions of an endangered species listing overwhelmingly affected the timber industry.

The objective is to bring about a broad recovery of the sockeye population, he said. “We are not in the business of breeding museum pieces or having sockeye in the zoo.”

“This is going to require a close reexamination of the way dams are operated on the river,” said Vic Sher, a Seattle attorney who filed the lawsuit. “The situation for years has been that the salmon are considered secondary, if at all. This makes them primary.”

The petition calling for federal officials to declare the sockeye endangered was filed in April, 1990, by the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Ft. Hill reservation in Idaho.

Sher said that petition is apt to be followed by many others to list other salmon as endangered on other “runs” in the Columbia River system.

“In the aggregate,” he added, “protection of the fish is going to revolutionize river management and land and water management in the Pacific Northwest.”

Still pending is a Fisheries Service proposal to list the spring and summer runs of the Columbia River Chinook salmon as threatened. A decision is due by next June.

Although Thursday’s listing was the first endangered finding in the Columbia River watershed, Marine Fisheries last year listed the Chinook salmon as endangered on a run in the Sacramento River in California.

Efforts to stem the decline in wild salmon numbers have been under way for years, with spending reaching as much as $1 billion. But with 69 dams in the Columbia River system, fish ladders and other navigation aids have proved inadequate.

The Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity generated by the dams, provides some of the nation’s lowest electrical rates but it has been estimated that a massive effort to save salmon by regulating the flow of water through the dam’s turbines could drive the cost of electricity up as much as 33%.

No salmon species in the Columbia watershed has declined in such a startling fashion as the Snake River sockeye. By 1989, only two known sockeye nests, or redds, were known to remain, and last year only one fish was counted at the halfway mark on the journey to the waters of the Sawtooth Mountain range in Idaho. None was known to have actually reached the spawning area, and there was speculation that the wild sockeye had in fact become extinct.

Two months ago, four adult fish were captured on their way to Redfish Lake.

“The chances of recovery sound slim, but they are not necessarily hopeless,” said Debbie Crouse, director of species recovery programs at the Center for Marine Conservation. “The sockeye spawns in three- to four-year cycles, so others may return next year. The problem is that its reproduction could depend upon such a very few fish that the species is now genetically vulnerable.”

National Marine Fisheries spokesman Roddy Moscoso said that members of a team to prepare the recovery plan will be named within the next few weeks and a draft plan will be completed by spring.

The recovery team’s first steps will be to review recommendations already submitted by the Northwest Power Planning Council and a so-called “Salmon Summit” organized by Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.).

Doug Conner, a Times researcher in Seattle, contributed to this report.

(Southland Edition) Snapshot of the Sockeye

Here is a look at the Snake River sockeye salmon, listed Thursday as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act: THE FISH: Snake River sockeye salmon hatch in Redfish Lake Creek in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. They migrate almost 900 miles along the Salmon, Snake and Columbia rivers to the Pacific Ocean, and return four to five years later to spawn. Tens of thousands used to be counted each year, but only four made it near the spawning grounds this year. THE PROBLEM: Eight hydroelectric dams create hurdles for adults swimming upstream and slow the flow of water so it takes juveniles longer to reach the ocean. THE SOLUTION: Proposals focus on boosting water flows, curbing salmon harvests and restoring watershed. The cost is less water for hydroelectric power, irrigation and shipping. THE IMPACT: Diverting water to “flush” fish downstream in the spring would mean power production losses of about $70 million in an average water year. Homeowners’ electric rates could increase. Fish-passage improvements at dams would cost up to $30 million a year. Some changes are under way. THE OTHER SIDE: Thousands of sockeye could return to the Salmon River within 12 years. Other salmon runs could improve, adding to the region’s $1-billion fishery. SOURCE: Associated Press