Federal Government Designates Critical Habitat for Threatened
Pacific EulachonAll Press Releases… Oceana finds failure to
designate any ocean waters for this important forage fish a
dereliction of responsibility and a threat to the recovery of
Pacific eulachon October 20, 2011 Contact: Ben Enticknap (
firstname.lastname@example.org | 503-235-0278) Will Race (
email@example.com | 907-586-4050) The National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) issued a final rule today to designate critical
habitat for the Pacific eulachon, a threatened species of smelt,
in sixteen coastal rivers and streams in northern California,
Oregon and Washington. Like Pacific salmon, these smelt
reproduce in coastal rivers, but live in open ocean habitats for
the other 95 to 98 percent of their lives. Oceana finds that the
government ruling is a step in the right direction, but
emphasizes that the failure to designate critical habitat in
ocean waters is a major shortcoming and a threat to the recovery
of this species. “It is irresponsible of