[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 64 (Monday, April 5, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 16396-16397]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-8181]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

50 CFR Part 223

[I.D. 030399A]


Endangered and Threatened Species; Petition to Delist Coho Salmon 
in Siskiyou County, California

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notification of petition finding.

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SUMMARY: NMFS has received a petition to delist coho salmon 
(Oncorhynchus kisutch) in Siskiyou County, California, from the 
endangered species list. NMFS has determined that the petition does not 
contain any new, substantial scientific or commercial information 
indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.

DATES: The finding announced in this document was made on March 29, 
1999.

ADDRESSES: Requests for information concerning this petition should be 
sent to Chief, Endangered Species Division, Office of Protected 
Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East West Highway, 
Silver Spring, MD 20910; telephone: (301)713-1401.


[[Page 16397]]


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lisa Lierheimer at (301)713-1401.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 4(b)(3)(A) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as 
amended (16 U.S.C et seq.), requires that NMFS make a finding on 
whether a petition to list, delist, or reclassify a species presents 
substantial scientific or commercial information to demonstrate that 
the petitioned action may be warranted. NMFS' standard for substantial 
information is stated at 50 CFR 424.14(b) as ``that amount of 
information that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the 
measure proposed in the petition may be warranted.'' This finding is to 
be based on all information available to NMFS at the time. To the 
maximum extent practicable, this finding is to be made within 90 days 
of the receipt of the petition, and the finding is to be published 
promptly in the Federal Register. If the finding is positive, NMFS is 
also required to promptly commence a review of the status of the 
involved species.

    NMFS has made a 90-day finding on a petition to delist coho salmon 
(Oncorhynchus kisutch) in Siskiyou County, California. The petition, 
dated January 4, 1999, was submitted by Mr. Richard A. Gierak, Director 
of New Frontiers Institute, Inc., and was received by NMFS on January 
20, 1999. The petitioner requested that NMFS delist coho salmon 
(Oncorhynchus kisutch) in Siskiyou County, California. This population 
is included in the Southern Oregon/Northern California coho salmon 
Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU); the ESU was listed as a 
threatened species on May 6, 1997 (62 FR 24588).

    The petitioner submitted information from various documents from 
1985 through 1998, including NMFS publications, reports, and Federal 
Register documents of salmon listings, and from personal communications 
on the primary causative factors in the decline of coho salmon in 
northern California rivers. The petitioner identifies two categories of 
major factors contributing to the decline of northern California coho: 
nature (i.e., floods, fire, drought, El Nino), and human activities 
(i.e., the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the overpopulation of 
salmonid predators, the removal of salmonid eggs for hatchery 
production, ocean fishing, and the destruction of estuarine habitats 
along the coast).

    Under section 4(a)(1) of the ESA and the listing regulations at 50 
CFR 424.11(c), when a species is considered for listing, NMFS must 
determine whether the species is endangered or threatened due to any 
one or a combination of the following factors: (1) The present or 
threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or 
range; (2) overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or 
educational purposes; (3) disease or predation; (4) the inadequacy of 
existing regulatory mechanism; or (5) other natural or manmade factors 
affecting its continued existence.

    Under 50 CFR 424.11(d), the factors considered in delisting a 
species are the same as those used to list a species. A species may be 
delisted only if the best scientific and commercial data indicates that 
the species is no longer threatened or endangered for the following 
reasons: (1) Extinction; (2) recovery (the point at which the purposes 
of the ESA are no longer required); or (3) subsequent investigation 
reveals that the original data or the interpretation of that data used 
to list the species was in error.

    In its listing determination for coho salmon in the Southern 
Oregon/Northern California ESU (62 FR 24588, May 6, 1997), NMFS 
concluded that the current status of the population is the result of a 
wide range of long-standing, human-induced factors (i.e. habitat 
degradation, harvest, and artificial propagation) that serve to 
exacerbate the effects of environmental conditions that adversely 
impact coho salmon such as drought, poor ocean conditions, and 
flooding. The specific factors for decline of coho salmon that were 
identified in the petition (i.e. natural environmental change due to 
floods, fire, drought and El Nino, and human-induced activities 
associated with the management of marine mammal populations, fishing, 
and hatchery practices) were previously considered by NMFS in its 
listing determination and found to have contributed to the species 
decline. Information demonstrating that listed salmon have recovered or 
that the threats to salmon no longer exist were not presented in the 
petition.

    NMFS has reviewed the petition, the literature cited in the 
petition, and other available literature and information. NMFS finds 
that the petitioned action does not present substantial scientific or 
commercial information indicating that delisting coho salmon in 
Siskiyou County, California, or the Southern Oregon/Northern California 
coho salmon ESU in which these populations are included, may be 
warranted.

    Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.

    Dated: March 29, 1999.
Andrew A. Rosenberg,
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 99-8181 Filed 4-2-99; 8:45 am]
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