ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1992

CRITICAL HABITAT: 3,887,800 acres of inland nesting habitat in Washington, Oregon, and California designated in 1996

RECOVERY PLAN: 1997

RANGE: Pacific Coast of North America from the Aleutian Archipelago and southern Alaska to central California just south of the San Francisco Bay

THREATS: Habitat loss due to commercial logging of old-growth forests, climate change affecting ocean conditions, incidental bycatch in commercial fishing nets, increases in predator populations, oil spills, and chemical dumping and other marine pollution

POPULATION TREND: In 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that the marbled murrelet population in the Pacific Northwest was declining by 4 to 7 percent each year. More recent demographic models indicate that populations in Washington, Oregon, and California could be extinct within the next 50 years.