ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE

PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened (southern population)

YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 2006

CRITICAL HABITAT: 8.6 million acres of river, estuarine, bay, and coastal marine habitat in California, Oregon, and Washington designated in 2009

RECOVERY PLAN: In development

RANGE: In the ocean from the Bering Sea, Alaska to Ensenada, Mexico; in estuaries and bays from British Columbia, Canada, to Monterey Bay, California; in river mouths from the Skeena River, British Columbia to the Sacramento River, California; spawning sites only in Oregon’s Rogue River and California’s Klamath and Sacramento river systems

THREATS: Water withdrawals from spawning rivers, dams blocking access to spawning habitat, habitat alteration, overfishing, poaching for caviar, pesticides, and pollutants

POPULATION TREND: The southern population has been reduced to only about 50 spawning-age fish reproducing in a single river system. The northern population has been extirpated from at least four former spawning rivers.