Agency Grants Fish Threatened Status

Capping a six-year legal battle with environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday listed as a threatened species the Santa Ana sucker, a bottom-feeding fish that was once abundant in streams and rivers across Southern California.

But environmentalists said they will continue to fight the agency in court because it did not designate any waterways as critical for survival of the freshwater fish, which is no longer found across 75% of its historic range because of urban development.

“We’re delighted that Fish and Wildlife Service has finally acted, [but] it took them too long and it also took a lawsuit to force them to act,” said Michael Sherwood, a staff attorney with San Francisco-based Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, which represented two conservation groups in the lawsuit against the agency.

Sherwood said designation of critical habitat is a key provision of the Endangered Species Act that would have offered added protection for the small fish.

The sucker, which uses its little mouth and thick, large lips to vacuum algae and invertebrates from stream beds, used to be found in creeks and bodies of water throughout the Southland.

Today, it is found in the headwaters of the San Gabriel River in the Angeles National Forest, in Big Tujunga Creek and in portions of the Santa Ana River.

“The species is in trouble and it’s headed on a trend that could lead toward extinction,” said Joan Jewitt, spokeswoman for the service’s regional office in Portland.

Listing the fish as a “threatened species” gives the wildlife service a say in any federally funded or federally regulated activity that could affect the sucker. On private land, individuals will need authorization to do anything that affects the species or its habitat.

Environmentalists say the species should have been listed as “endangered,” a designation that offers a greater level of federal protection.

“U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a very long history of dragging its feet when it comes to implementation of the Endangered Species Act and the reason for this is grounded in politics,” said David Hogan, of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity’s San Diego office. “The Endangered Species Act is the strongest environmental law which exists in the United States and it provides sweeping protection for valuable wildlife and habitat.”

But Jewitt said there was not enough available information on the sucker for such a designation or to set aside any habitat.

The service, along with Orange County, Orange County Water District, Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and others, are studying the creature and will release results by the end of the year, Jewitt added. A critical habitat designation proposal is due in January.

Activists remain wary, noting that every critical habitat designation in recent memory--including that of the California gnatcatcher and the San Diego and Riverside fairy shrimps--was prompted by either a court order or a legal settlement.

“Fish and Wildlife Service refuses to fully implement the law because to do so would ruffle the feathers of developers, loggers and others who would harm imperiled wildlife,” Hogan said.

Jewitt said her agency’s limited resources are stretched catching up with the backlog from a yearlong congressional moratorium on using federal funds to list species as endangered or threatened. Since the moratorium ended in 1996, she said, the service’s policy has been to focus on the most pressing listings.

“The reality is we’re having to practice triage,” Jewitt said. “We deal with things in order of how seriously imperiled we feel the species is. Sometimes, they have to wait in line, which is unfortunate. During that time, enviros file legal action to force us. I guess the reality is, that does sort of move it up the line.”

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Santa Ana Sucker, Catostomus santannae

* Description: Small to medium in size with large thick lips and small mouth used to vacuum algae and invertebrates from riverbeds and streams.

* Lifespan: Two to three years.

* Preferred habitat: Clear, cool rocky pools and creeks; small to medium rivers.

* Historic range: Once common in Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana river drainages and in small, shallow freshwater streams.

* Current range: Headwaters of San Gabriel River system., Big Tujunga Creek in Los Angeles River Basin, portions of the Santa Ana River, and parts of the Santa Clara River system in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

* Decline caused by: Water diversions, dams, extreme alterations of stream channels, erosion, debris, torrents, pollution, heavy recreational use of waterways. Also, nonnative species that prey on suckers and compete for habitat.

Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service