MARIN SALMON POPULATIONS PLUMMET

By Uncategorized

The spawning season for endangered coho salmon of Marin is the worst recorded in 12 years, causing high levels of concern by biologists who have been working to monitor and restore the endangered populations following a decade of stable or slightly increasing spawning numbers. Marin’s Lagunitas Watershed, located just 25 miles from downtown San Francisco, and one of the Bay Area’s most beloved salmon runs, boasts the largest remaining population of coho salmon left in Central California and upwards of 20% of the State’s total. Coho have already gone extinct in 90 percent of California streams that once supported this species.

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Oil Spill Impact Assessment for Redwood Creek Coho Salmon

By Uncategorized

Letter submitted to NOAA and CA DFG. The Redwood Creek coho salmon run comes in from the Pacific Ocean at Muir Beach in Marin County and is closely monitored each year by biologists from the National Park Service. Redwood Creek coho congregate off Muir Beach at the start of the rainy season waiting for seasonal rains to break the berm at Muir Beach so they can begin their upstream migration. On the date of the oil spill, November 7th, 2007, that berm had not yet broken. Thus the fish were likely directly offshore — and may have been in the path of the oil that affected coastal Marin and particularly Muir Beach.

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Loggerhead Sea Turtles May Gain Endangered Status

By Sea Turtles

SAN FRANCISCO- The U.S. government announced today that it is considering listing loggerhead sea turtles found off the U.S. West Coast as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The action comes in response to a formal petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network in July 2007 that aimed to increase protections for loggerhead sea turtles. The petition sought to have North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act and to have areas along the California coast and off Hawaii designated as critical habitat for the species.

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Imperiled Bird Advances Toward Endangered Species Act Protection

By Marine Mammals & Seabirds

HONOLULU, Hawaii- Today the federal government announced the initiation of a formal review to determine if the black-footed albatross should receive the protections of the Endangered Species Act. The announcement, published in the Federal Register, comes in response to a petition filed in 2004 by the environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network.

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