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Judge throws out threatened species listing for coho salmon along Oregon coast JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press
Writer Oregon - A federal judge threw out a regulation that protected coho salmon spawned in the Oregon wild but not those raised in hatcheries, saying it didn't make sense to distinguish between the two. District Judge Michael J. Hogan said the National Marine Fisheries Service was arbitrary and capricious in 1998 when it put Oregon coastal coho born in the wild onto the threatened species list without extending the same protection to those from hatcheries. Finding no genetic difference between individual wild fish and those from hatcheries, he sent the matter back to the fisheries service for reconsideration. Jason Miner, conservation biologist for Oregon Trout, a group working to restore salmon in Oregon, called the judge's decision "catastrophic." "There is a factual finding that hatchery fish and wild fish are genetically the same, which is both inaccurate and vastly oversimplifies the complex biology of Oregon's native fish," Miner said. Russ Brooks, attorney for the Alsea Valley Alliance of local sport fisherman, which filed the suit, disagreed. "It's pretty silly when a bureaucrat can wade into a river and pick one coho salmon and declare it protected, and pick another coho salmon and take it home and throw it on the grill," Brooks said. "If they're threatened, fine, list them all, not just part of them." Fishermen can tell which salmon are wild and which came from hatcheries because the hatcheries nick a fin on the tail to mark them. Threatened species cannot legally be killed or harassed, and their habitat must be protected and restored. Monday's ruling from Eugene applied to fish along roughly the northern two-thirds of the Oregon coast, but in theory could affect all West Coast salmon if similar lawsuits are successful on 25 other listed salmon, fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman said. Brooks said there were no immediate plans to seek reversals of other Endangered Species Act listings for salmon, trout or steelhead. Hatcheries were once routinely used to breed fish to restock rivers and lakes, making up for the loss of freshwater habitat to dams, logging, grazing and development. But in recent years, many biologists have argued against them because hatchery operators have historically given little regard to maintaining genetic diversity, compromising the fish's ability to cope with a changing environment. The hatchery-raised fish also behave differently, giving them less ability to survive in the wild, some argue. The coho salmon listing drew attention in 1998 after a banker videotaped state workers clubbing hatchery fish on the Alsea River so they would not breed with wild fish. The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public interest law firm, teamed with the Alsea Valley Alliance, a coalition that includes sport fishermen and the owners of a bait-shop and a charter boat, Brooks said. The fisheries service has not yet analyzed the ruling or decided whether to appeal, though state protections remain in force that continue to protect coho, Gorman said. Steve Williams, assistant chief of fisheries for the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife, said it was too early to say what the
ruling would mean for efforts to protect and restore Oregon coho. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
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