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Kokanee (not the beer)

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From the Seattle Times 11/18/03

Sims says kokanee run extinct; Lake Sammamish fish never protected

By Keith Ervin and Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporters

DAVID FRIEDMAN / AP
A kokanee, a landlocked sockeye salmon, is shown at an Oregon lake. Lake Sammamish's early-run kokanee have disappeared.

A once-abundant run of freshwater salmon has apparently gone extinct in Lake Sammamish, King County Executive Ron Sims announced yesterday.

For three straight years, biologists studying kokanee salmon in the Eastside lake could not find a single fish going upstream to spawn in Issaquah Creek, the run's only spawning ground. The last sighting of an early-run kokanee was in 2000, when only two were seen.

The slide into oblivion has been precipitous since 1975, when an estimated 15,000 kokanee went upstream.

Kokanee are in the same species as ocean-going sockeye salmon but live entirely in freshwater, hatching in the gravel beds of a creek, migrating to a lake and then returning to the creek to spawn.

Late-running kokanee remain in Lake Sammamish, but their numbers are also declining, and Sims warned that a variety of agencies must act fast or the late run "will suffer the same fate as the early run."

Sims called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to respond within 90 days to a 2000 petition to list the Lake Sammamish kokanee as threatened or endangered.

Sims also said he is asking the state Department of Transportation to provide a way for the remaining late-run kokanee to get beyond a culvert under Interstate 90 on Lewis Creek.

He also pledged to give higher priority to King County capital projects that will benefit Lake Sammamish kokanee.

Although a number of Puget Sound salmon runs have gone extinct in the past and local chinook runs are listed by the federal government as threatened, the Issaquah Creek kokanee is the only significant local run that has died out recently.

Focus on freshwater

At a time when scientists debate the importance of ocean fishing and the ocean environment in the decline of many salmon species, scientists said the decline of a freshwater fish that cannot legally be caught demonstrates the importance of changes in freshwater habitat.

Reasons for the kokanee's demise, scientists said, may include higher water temperatures due to global warming; siltation, low water levels and excessive runoff due to suburban development and road building; past pollution from the county's Cedar Hills Landfill; and past practices at the Issaquah Fish Hatchery.

The early-run fish may have been more vulnerable because they spawn in August and September, when creek water is warmest and flows are most reduced. The late kokanee run takes place from late November to January.

Hans Berge and Kollin Higgins, authors of a just-released county report on the decline of the kokanee, said the Issaquah hatchery, which rears chinook and coho salmon, once killed kokanee that spawned there.

"One of the old hatchery guys told me they would let them into the pond and basically pull the plug and dry them all out," Higgins said.

Kirk Lakey, a biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the Issaquah hatchery killed kokanee fry because they carried a virus that potentially could destroy Baker Lake sockeye, which were being introduced into Lake Washington.

"They felt that the kokanee were a potential health threat to the sockeye," Lakey said. But he noted that late-run kokanee are struggling, too, even though those fish didn't go through the hatchery.

"There are still other problems out there, and it looks like the loss of spawning ground is the key," Lakey said.

County biologist Berge said Sims' proposal to help late-run kokanee swim Lewis Creek beyond Interstate 90 would restore a lost area of habitat.

"It's important to give the fish an opportunity to colonize other areas," he said. "If there was a spill on I-90 near Lewis Creek, that could be the end of it. If you think about it, that's a scary thing."

Never listed for protection

The plight of the kokanee brings to the surface turmoil over how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service handles requests to protect species in rapid decline.

In the nearly four years since a coalition of groups petitioned the agency to list the kokanee for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the agency officially has taken no action. In November 2000, it sent a letter to the petitioners saying the agency's time and money were being eaten up by environmental groups' lawsuits demanding it set aside habitat for species already listed.

"Unfortunately, this is an example of what happens when our workload is dictated by critical habitat and court orders," said Joan Jewett, spokeswoman for the federal agency's regional office in Portland.

It's not a new argument. The agency has long claimed it would prefer to spend money listing new species for protection under the Endangered Species Act. But it says it is being forced by court rulings to use that money to designate areas as critical habitat for species that are already listed. The agency argues that is often unnecessary because there are other ways to protect the species.

In 2000, the agency announced a freeze on new listings, which affected 59 species proposed for protection and 258 considered future candidates. In Washington, those include the Oregon spotted frog, coastal cutthroat trout, Mardon skipper butterfly and the kokanee.

Environmentalists, most notably with the Center for Biological Diversity, have long maintained the agency has no business pitting the creation of wildlife habitat against new listings. It is required by law to do both.

Center officials claim the agency is too politically timid to even request enough federal money to do the job. Earlier this year, the agency asked for $12.3 million for listing, nearly double what it spent a few years ago, but still shy of what it admits it needs.

The Fish and Wildlife Service told some state officials earlier this year that it probably would have declined to list the Lake Washington-Lake Sammamish kokanee on grounds that they were not a distinct population, Lakey said.

"It's semi-frustrating," Lakey said. "They look at the complete and entire population, extending from Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and kokanee as a whole don't warrant listing. The local concern, though, has been that these kokanee were genetically different."

Equally important, Lakey said, was that the communication from U.S. Fish and Wildlife was informal. Officially, the agency has still never made a decision, which prevents any sort of appeal.

"The conclusion was that it didn't warrant listing, but they never formally wrote it up," Lakey said.

County could have acted

Although it appears to be too late to save the early-run kokanee, Jewett said Sims' letter will "obviously raise this on the radar screen." But, she added, the county did not have to wait all these years for federal approval before embarking on its own efforts.

Sims "seems to imply that cooperative efforts can't happen until there's a decision to list," Jewett said. "I see no reason a lack of listing should prevent local efforts. At times like these, it's even more important."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com. Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com
 
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