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L/FOG Temp: 44 °F Wind: NNW at 4 mph Friday, December 6, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend November 15, 2002 Groups seek green sturgeon protection By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Environmental groups are casting into the legal pool in an attempt to increase protection for a prehistoric creature lurking in the deepest depths of the lower Rogue River canyon. The Oregon Natural Resources Council, along with the Environmental Protection Information Center and the Center for Biological Diversity in California, filed a lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in an attempt to force the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, to decide whether to list the green sturgeon as federally endangered or threatened. They are angry that NMFS has yet to make a determination on a June 2001 petition that requested listing the green sturgeon as endangered on the federal endangered species list. By law, the agency, which agreed that listing may be warranted because of declining populations, has one year after accepting a petition to decide. However, the lawsuit may be moot. A NMFS spokesman said Thursday that the agency’s decision will soon be released. The finding, which he would not divulge, was delayed largely because of the difficulty of obtaining facts about the little-known bottom feeder, he said. But Wendell Wood, Southern Oregon field representative for ONRC, believes the Bush administration has been delaying the decision on purpose because of the political battle for water in the Klamath River basin. "We virtually have our own sea monster, a contemporary of the dinosaurs, that is in our rivers today," he said. "Yet its breeding populations have just about disappeared." Too many deep holes in the rivers are being filled in by siltation and reduced water levels, he said, noting that water being diverted for farming in places like the Klamath Basin is jeopardizing the future of the fish. "Certainly, if any fish has senior water rights, it’s the green sturgeon," he added. The Rogue, Klamath and Sacramento river systems are the principal breeding waters for the fish, which ranges from Alaska to Mexico. However, the Klamath is the most important breeding system with between 500 and 1,000 in that waterway, Wood said. The Sacramento and Rogue rivers have fewer sturgeon, he added. The green sturgeon, which lives as long as a human, growing to 7 1/2 feet long and weighing up to 350 pounds, is virtually unchanged since it first appeared some 200 million years ago, he said. "To lose a species because we’d rather put water on subsidized potatoes, we think makes no sense," Wood said. Fishery biologist Garth Griffin, spokesman for NMFS, acknowledged that the agency had not met its required one-year determination after accepting the petition. But the delay has nothing to do with politics, he said. "We are overdue," he said. "(But) we have concluded our scientific evaluation and just about completed the determination of the finding and started the review process. "It has been a tough species to study," he said. "Unlike salmon, which we work with every day, this is a totally different species." With little information to begin with, the NMFS had to build an information base, he said. "But our agency has been thoughtful and has thoroughly tried to uncover all the information," he said. Wood acknowledged the green sturgeon would be difficult to study, given its deep river habitat. Listing the fish would not mean it would be off limits to fishing, he said, adding there are already limits on the take. Although not common, the green sturgeon, along with the more plentiful white sturgeon, is sometimes caught by anglers in the lower Rogue. "The conservation community doesn’t want to try to set regulations what the take should be," he said. "But, by giving the fish this status, it flags them that they have to look more closely (at their populations)." The environmentalists are not opposed to Indian tribes continuing their historic fishing for green sturgeon since it includes only a small portion of the entire take, he said. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S