Subject: FW: SW BIODIVERSITY ALERT #182

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 SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
                            http//www.sw-center.org
  #182                                                                    
5-2-99
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§ PETITION FILED TO LIST ABALONE AS ENDANGERED-
   SPECIES HAS DECLINED BY 99.9% IN THIRTY YEARS

§ SUIT FILED TO PROTECT FISH HABITAT IN CALIFORNIA

§ COMMENTS NEEDED TO PROTECT STEELHEAD HABITAT-
   OUTDATED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DAMS MUST GO
                  ____________________________

PETITION FILED TO LIST WHITE ABALONE AS ENDANGERED-
SPECIES HAS DECLINED BY 99.9% IN THIRTY YEARS
The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition on 4-28-99 to
list the White abalone (Haliotis soreni) as an endangered species. Since the
abalone has declined by 99.9% in the last thirty years, we have asked that it
be immediately listed on an emergency basis, so that it does not become extinct
during the typical 2-3 year review period.

The White abalone occurs from near Point Conception (near Santa Barbara) to
Punta Eugenia, Baja California, Mexico. It lives at a depth of 80-100 feet,
feeds on marine algae and can live up to 40 years. Within the lifetime of
single abalone, the entire species has declined from between two to four
million individuals, to between 600 and 1,600 individuals. In the last 33 three
years, it has not successfully reproduced on a broad scale. Though other
factors may be preventing reproduction, over fishing is rapidly driving it to
extinction.
     ___________________

SUIT FILED TO PROTECT FISH HABITAT IN CALIFORNIA
On 4-29-99, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity filed suit in a
Federal District Court in San Francisco to force the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service to designate critical habitat for the Sacramento splittail, a rare and
declining fish. Formerly common in the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Feather, and
American Rivers, the splittail is extinct in all but a fraction of its former
range. Today it is largely restricted to the San Francisco Bay Delta, Suisun
Bay, Suisun Marsh, and the Napa Marsh.

Although the splittail was officially proposed as a threatened species in 1994,
the Fish & Wildlife Service did not formally list it as threatened until 1999
after losing a lawsuit to the Southwest Center and the Sierra Club. The same
political pressures which forced the agency to allow the splittail to decline
without protection are causing it to allow continued habitat destruction. The
splittail's habitat has been and continues to be destroyed by dams, water
diversions, wetland draining and filling, and pollution from industrial and
agricultural industries.

The Center is represented by Neil Levine of EarthLaw.
     _____________________

COMMENTS NEEDED TO PROTECT STEELHEAD TROUT-
OUTDATED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DAMS MUST GO
The National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed designating critical habitat
for southern California's steelhead trout along coastal streams from the Santa
Maria River in San Luis Obispo County, to Malibu Creek near Los Angeles. Even
though dams have severely fragmented the steelhead's range, preventing it from
migrating upstream, the Fisheries Service is only proposing to designate
critical habitat BELOW the many dams blocking the steelhead's passage. The
agency is thereby making an implicit decision that the dams should not and can
not be removed, and that the steelhead will be forever extirpated from its
headwater habitat.

The agency also failed to propose protected critical habitat south of Malibu
Creek, even though the steelhead's historic range went all the way down to
northern Baja California.

Many of southern California's dams are antiquated and necessary, and they
certainly aren't permanent. Please write the National Marine Fisheries Service
today. Tell it to designate critical habitat both above and below dams on the
Cuyama, Santa Ynez, Ventura and Santa Clara rivers, and Malibu Creek. Also ask
them to designate critical habitat on rivers and streams south of Malibu Creek
including Topanga, Aliso, San Juan, San Mateo, San Onofre, Escondido, and
Penasquitos creeks, and the Santa Margarita, San Luis Rey, and San Dieguito
rivers.

Send comments by May 6, 1999 to:

   Branch Chief , Protected Resources Division
   National Marine Fisheries Service
   525 NE Oregon Street Suite 500
   Portland OR 97232-2737
   Fax: 503.230.5435

_____________________________________________________________________________

Kierán Suckling                               ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive Director                            520.623.5252 phone
Southwest Center for Biological Diversity     520.623.9797 fax
http://www.sw-center.org                      pob 710, tucson, az 85702-710