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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OUTDATED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DAMS MUST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