Feds Act to Protect Sound’s Steelhead

By Chester Allen, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

May 8–Puget Sound’s struggling runs of wild steelhead now have more clout in their fight for survival.

The federal government listed wild Puget Sound steelhead as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act on Monday.

Wild Puget Sound steelhead join Puget Sound chinook salmon under the protective umbrella of the act. Two other Puget Sound fish — Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon and bull trout — are also listed.

“Puget Sound’s wild steelhead have been in steep decline for decades,” said Dick Burge, conservation vice president of Wild Steelhead Coalition. “In the past 20 years, we’ve seen formerly productive runs fail year after year. Decades of degraded habitat, poor hatchery practices and misguided harvest management have to be addressed to turn the declines around.”

In 1996, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rejected a petition to list Puget Sound steelhead under the act.

“Since that time, we’ve seen a significant decline in runs,” Burge said. “And many of those runs aren’t showing signs of recovery.”

Puget Sound wild steelhead runs have crashed since the early 1990s. The Nisqually River once had a wild winter steelhead run of 7,000 fish a year; now fewer than 300 return annually.

The listing gives the fish more protection against habitat destruction. It also puts federal muscle behind efforts to reform operations so that hatchery steelhead and wild steelhead don’t compete for food or interbreed.

The listing is good news for wild steelhead in the Nisqually River, said David Troutt, Nisqually Tribe natural resources director.

“The listing will bring with it added attention and resources for salmon recovery in the upper Nisqually River watershed where the chinook salmon don’t go,” Troutt said.

Streams, rivers and the watersheds around them will get more protection because wild steelhead go farther up rivers to spawn and rear young than salmon, said Sam Wright, the Olympia fish biologist who wrote the NOAA petition to list steelhead.

Wright, a fish biologist for 43 years, has worked for more protection for Puget Sound steelhead.

“It took a long time, but it was worth waiting for,” Wright said.

He said the listing will spur work to protect and preserve watersheds that host runs of wild steelhead. It also will force state and tribal fish hatcheries to use native fish as broodstock for hatchery fish, Wright said.

Many Puget Sound hatcheries use brood fish adapted from Chambers Creek or Skamania River steelhead. Studies have shown that wild steelhead from different rivers have different genetic adaptations that help them survive in freshwater and the ocean.

Those genetic traits are weakened when wild steelhead breed with hatchery fish in the river.

“Canada catches wild fish for broodstock,” Wright said. “Chambers Creek stock is very different than wild fish.”

NOAA biologists said that habitat destruction, dams, poor hatchery practices and bad ocean conditions are why Puget Sound steelhead are in trouble.

What’s next

Bold action is needed to save Puget Sound steelhead, said Rob Masonis, Northwest regional director of American Rivers.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Masonis said. “We need to look at watershed-based recovery plans, which are already benefiting chinook salmon.

“We also need to manage our rivers better — keep development away from the banks and keep water in the rivers.”

Shared Strategy, which puts the state, local residents, tribes and local governments into watershed-based partnerships to help chinook salmon, will help steelhead as well, said Heather Bartlett, state Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon and steelhead division manager.

“It’s important to remember that harvest is not a significant contributor to the decline of steelhead,” Bartlett said. “Habitat is the number-one culprit.”

She said Fish and Wildlife will review hatchery operations and fishing seasons to give wild steelhead as much help as possible.

Anglers must release wild steelhead caught from Puget Sound rivers, except those caught in King County’s Green River, which is a relatively pristine habitat.

Wright said between one percent and four percent — most likely a percent or less — of wild steelhead caught and released die.

Wright said biologists must learn how many young wild steelhead leave each river for saltwater. That information will tell biologists whether the problem in that river is the troubled Puget Sound or the river itself, he said.

“It’s going to be pretty tough,” Wright said. “We’ve got global warming on top of everything else now, but there are systems where the fish have a good chance, such as the Nisqually, the upper Green River, the Snohomish system, the Skagit and the Nooksack.”

Wild steelhead are tough fish, and they’ll come back if given a chance, Wright said.

“I’ve seen steelhead spawning in Watershed Park, and they had to swim more than a mile underground in Moxlie Creek to get there,” Wright said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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