NMFS Agrees To December 1 Deadline For Critical OlyPen Steelhead Finding

The National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed to issue a key Endangered Species Act listing finding on Olympic Peninsula steelhead by December 1, according to documents filed in federal court this week.

The feds have already found that a listing “may be warranted” for what some consider to be Washington’s “crown jewel” fish, those that run up the Hoh and Q rivers of the North Coast, and the agency’s subsequent deep dive found them to be at “moderate risk of extinction.”

But with a 12-month finding dragging along, The Conservation Angler of Edmonds and Wild Fish Conservancy of Duvall sued NMFS early this year for not issuing a more “timely” determination.

They’d petitioned for a federal endangered or threatened listing three summers ago now.

“On or before December 1, 2025, the Service will submit to the Federal Register for publication a 12-month finding … on Plaintiffs’ August 2022 Petition to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead,” reads the two-party agreement signed by US District Court Judge John H. Chun in Seattle on July 1.

That finding will either lead to a proposed ESA listing, which would kick off another round of public comment before a final listing a year afterwards, or a not-warranted determination and the end of the road for the petition.

NMFS could also theoretically say a listing was warranted but precluded because of other priorities, leaving West End steelhead on the list of candidate species.

In their original petition, WFC and TCA claimed OlyPen summer-runs are “nearly extinct” and that the winter-run stock is “declining and losing its life history diversity” and dependent on its late-returning component.

Washington Coast winter steelhead runs have been recovering from 2020-21’s record-low return of 25,723. Seasons that year and since then have seen sharply restricted sport fisheries and reduced tribal netting.

While the Chehalis system in particular has struggled, North Coast rivers such as the Quillayute and Hoh have been strong enough since then that state managers relaxed no-fishing-from-a-boat regulations the past few years, though bait and barb bans remain coastwide.

On a related note, this month, WDFW is set to begin updating the permanent fishing rules for Olympic Peninsula steelhead rivers. Specific details were necessarily few and far between when managers briefed members of a Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission subcommittee last Thursday, but the state will focus on season dates and structures and gear regulations as it attempts to align the rules with current stock statuses, conservation necessities and comanager agreements. Seventy-five rivers and tributaries will be affected.

Listed steelhead populations elsewhere in Washington include Puget Sound, Lower, Middle and Upper Columbia, and Snake River Basin. Hatchery programs and fisheries and fishery permitting have been affected.

This week’s federal court agreement obligates NMFS to pay TCA and WFC $20,000.00 for attorneys’ fees, etc.

Per other recent court agreements, NMFS has also agreed to issue 12-month findings on Oregon Coast and Northern California Chinook and Washington Coast Chinook this fall.