eported on this serious problem in 1988 in Restoring the Balance. This report lead to the adoption of SB2261, which set a goal of doubling the runs of anadromous fisheries by the year 2000. Unfortunately no dedicated funding was provided to accomplish this goal. Small funding sources have been available to restorationists ranging from the early Boscoe-Keene grants, Proposition 99 and 70, and most recently the Thompson bill SB271. These modest attempts at funding a recovery have been administered by the Department of Fish and Game and overseen and granted through by the California Advisory Committee on Salmon Steelhead and Trout. Some small but important gains in stream habitat improvement, and barrier modification have accomplished in this initial work. One outgrowth has been a concerted effort critique and continues to improve the techniques of stream restoration and improve on fish passage. But these efforts can not and have not been able to alter in any significant way the continuing decline in overall habitat quality, serious losses in overall population, and extinctions of some stocks of coho salmon.
Several programs have been devised to develop a coordinated consensus approach to dealing with the declines in salmonids (California Salmon Initiative and Watershed Restoration and Protection Advisory Council). No program to date has produced either funding or a concerted effort to deal with the obvious problems facing all anadromous fisheries today, habitat loss. The majority of the coho salmon life stages occur in freshwater and can be protected by laws that regulate inland waters, the remainder of their life is governed at sea by state national and international fishing laws. These laws often conflict and are not effectively enforced, leading to poor protection and little positive affect. The combined effect environmental damage and the value of multi-jurisdictional regulations, is unknown at best, and likely ineffective as shown by the product of continued declining populations. If we truly expect to protect coho salmon we must move to a single regulatory body that can protect them throughout their entire life cycle and in all the environments they inhabit.
In California all stocks of coho salmon have shown a precipitous decline for over 80 years. All coho salmon stocks South of Punta Gorda are at a mere fraction of the past abundance. Small coastal streams have either small or intermittent runs of adults or populations are extinct. Most stocks of coho have been heavily supplemented with hatchery fish and wild coho salmon rare in this part of California. The National Marine Fisheries Biological Review Team (BRT) conclusion was dire regarding Central California coho salmon stocks, There was unanimous agreement among the BRT members that natural populations of coho salmon in this ESU are presently in danger of extinction. For the remainder of Northern California coho salmon stocks the BRT concluded, There was unanimous agreement among the BRT that coho salmon in this ESU are not in danger of extinction but are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future if presents trends continue.
The collapse of coho populations and extinctions of others is felt throughout the food chain of the aquatic environment. The present losses of just salmon carcass is causing an ecological catastrophe for many other species, as some are slowly being starved of the nutrients that are recycled by salmon carcasses and others directly starved by not having this seasonal food source.
The listing is requested by the Salmon Steelhead Recovery Coalition after considerable study. Careful review of the existing data indicates the listing is warranted, and the SSRC request that the Fish and Game Commission use the special protections afforded by the California Endangered Species Act help protect and restore our coho salmon populations.
Maps and Figures - National Marine Fisheries Service (not included in this version but filed with original).
Baracco, A. California Department of Fish and Game, Sacramento CA 95814
Bartley, D.M. 1991. Populatio