Steelhead Trout Protection Extended in Southern California

In response to years of public pressure including a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, California Trout, Environmental Defense Center, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Heal the Bay, Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations , the National Marine Fisheries Service announced on 5-01-02 that it will expand the protected range of the endangered southern California steelhead trout all the way to the Mexican border.

The southern steelhead were listed as an endangered species in 1997. But in order to avoid conflicts with coastal sprawl in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, and in contradiction to the recommendation of its own scientists, the Fisheries Service excluded all portions of the species' range south of Malibu Creek from protective status. It also excluded all stream reaches above impassible dams. Thus the protected southern steelhead trout range stopped exactly where the political conflicts started.

Southern California steelhead are a distinct population of a species which occurs from Alaska to northern Baja California. Like salmon, steelhead are born in freshwater streams, migrate into the ocean where they spend most of their life, then migrate back up the stream of their birth to spawn and die. Tens of thousands of steelhead trout once returned from the Pacific Ocean each year to spawn in southern California streams and rivers. They comprised a major sport fishery. Dams, roads and urban sprawl, however, have destroyed most of southern California's coastal streams, decimating steelhead runs. Only a few hundred fish remain today.

In addition to the Center, the steelhead lawsuit was filed by California Trout, Environmental Defense Center, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Heal the Bay, Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations.