The Wild Fish Conservancy filed a lawsuit this month in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. in an effort to speed up NOAA Fisheries’ review of the Washington-based conservation group’s proposal to list Chinook salmon in Alaska under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The group said in a news release that NOAA is failing to meet an essential legal guideline under the ESA and delaying the federal protections a listed species would have, in this case “at-risk Alaskan Chinook salmon.”
The Conservancy formally petitioned NOAA on Jan. 11, 2024, nearly one-and-a-half years ago, to list the fish and to grant it federal protection under the ESA in rivers that flow into the Gulf of Alaska.
NOAA issued a finding May 24, 2024 that the petition filed by the Conservancy contained substantial information indicating that federal listing and protection could be warranted. According to the group, that triggered a review at NOAA that should have been completed by Jan. 11, 2025.
“It should not take a lawsuit to make the federal government uphold its legal responsibility, but with the crisis facing Alaskan Chinook, we are out of time and options,” said Emma Helverson, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. “The Endangered Species Act sets clear deadlines for a reason, to evaluate the risk of extinction and trigger action while recovery is still possible. By ignoring those deadlines, NOAA isn’t just breaking the law—it’s perpetuating the collapse of Alaskan Chinook and threatening the ecosystems and communities that depend on them.”
Under the ESA, NOAA had 12-months, until Jan. 11, 2025, to review the data on Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon and determine whether ‘threatened’ or ‘endangered’ status is warranted, according to the group.
Once abundant, wild Chinook are experiencing chronic declines throughout the streams that flow into the Gulf of Alaska, threatening the health of ecosystems, indigenous cultural practices and food security, local economies, and communities that all depend on wild salmon, the Conservancy said.
The Conservancy said that data from the state of Alaska demonstrates persistent declines in Chinook abundance, size, age, diversity, and spatial structure.
“Many are surprised to learn some Alaskan Chinook populations are in even worse condition than other Pacific Northwest populations already listed under the ESA,” the Conservancy said.
Those threats include overfishing, bycatch in trawl fisheries, hatchery impacts, habitat degradation and climate change. Alaska has already recognized many of these stocks as ‘species of concern’ over the last decade, due to their continued decline in the face of the state’s attempted regulatory actions.
“Alaska’s leadership insists it’s taking aggressive steps to recover Chinook and that those efforts are proving successful, but the state’s own data shows this couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Helverson.
“We’ve heard directly from Alaskan fishers, Indigenous individuals, and the general public who depend on Gulf of Alaska Chinook who are frustrated by the state’s false narrative and inaction. These individuals expressed relief and optimism in the ESA process, not only for its comprehensive review, but also for the tangible actions and increased resources it can bring to begin rebuilding populations.”
According to the Conservancy in its January 2024 petition to list, the petition “encompasses all Chinook populations that enter the marine environment of the Gulf of Alaska.” It “includes all populations on the southern side of the Aleutian Peninsula, Cook Inlet, and the coast of Alaska south of Cook Inlet to the southern end of the Alaska/British Columbia border.”
NOAA Fisheries said at the time that it interpreted the request as asking to consider populations of Chinook salmon on:
- Southern side of the Alaska Peninsula, including Kodiak Island, Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound
- Gulf of Alaska coastline
- Inside waters of Southeast Alaska to the United States/Canada border
In many cases, the number of Chinook salmon officials forecast to return are well below the minimum number of fish needed to reproduce at a rate to simply replace themselves, let alone to recover prior abundance, the Conservancy said.
“Compounding the problem, actual returns frequently fall even lower than predicted by the state– a fact that doesn’t become known until after management decisions have already been made,” it said. “Over time, steadily declining returns have resulted in consecutive years of emergency fishery closures for in-river commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, including for indigenous communities. Meanwhile, Alaska’s government continues to authorize large-scale commercial ocean fisheries to harvest or kill as bycatch Chinook from these same populations; threats identified in the petition.”
It continued, saying that the Kenai River, world-renowned for its Chinook salmon, is at a historic low. In 2024, the early-season count was just 1,365 fish returning, which is the fifth consecutive year of missed forecasts. The late-season numbers were equally concerning, with only 6,930 Chinook returning, far lower than the historical average of about 28,000 Chinook over the last four decades. And, the Conservancy says, the oldest and largest of the (age-7) salmon have failed to appear the last three years.
On the west side of Kodiak Island in the Karluk River, goals to maintain the population require at least 3,000 Chinook to return annually. In 2024 just 76 returned to spawn.
The Ayakulik River, the largest river system on the island, saw only 354 Chinook return to spawn, just 7 percent of the river’s population goal of 4,800 fish.
“Government officials, seafood certifiers, and the fishing industry continue to assure the public that Alaska’s Chinook are well managed, but the data tells a different story. This year, Chinook fisheries across the Gulf of Alaska are closed on an emergency basis, yet fisheries managers continue to stubbornly defend their position that the fish are not at risk of extinction.” said Conrad Gowell, a biologist with Wild Fish Conservancy and co-author of the petition. “The longer the federal government waits to release their findings and take appropriate action, the more severe the social, economic, and environmental consequences will be.”
NOAA has also failed to issue legally required final determinations on ESA listing petitions for Olympic Peninsula steelhead, Oregon and California coast Chinook and Washington coast Chinook, the Conservancy said.
The lawsuit asks that the court order NOAA to “promptly issue” its decision on the petition.
As reported by Nathaniel Herz in the Northern Journal (www.northernjournal.com) in Anchorage, AK, Doug Vincent-Lang, Alaska Fish and Game commissioner, said the state agency has opposed the Conservancy’s proposal, but adding that NOAA Fisheries is “working through the process.”
“I understand they’re getting closer to a decision,” he told the Northern Journal. “I’d much rather have them take their time and have a deliberative process than to rush to a decision because of a statutory timeline.”
The Conservancy’s May 8 complaint is at https://wildfishconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/001.0.complaint.pdf
The Conservancy’s Jan. 2024 petition to list Alaska Chinook salmon is here: https://wildfishconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Petition-to-List-Alaskan-Chinook-Salmon-under-ESA_Final.pdf
For background, see:
— CBB, Jan. 18, 2024, GROUP PETITIONS NOAA FISHERIES TO LIST ALASKA CHINOOK SALMON UNDER ESA; STATE SAYS ‘TARGETED ATTACK’ ON ALASKA https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/group-petitions-noaa-fisheries-to-list-alaska-chinook-salmon-under-esa-state-says-targeted-attack-on-alaska/
— CBB, May 3, 2024, NOAA Fisheries Finds ESA Listing Of Gulf Of Alaska Chinook May Be Warranted, https://columbiabasinbulletin.org/noaa-fisheries-finds-esa-listing-of-gulf-of-alaska-chinook-may-be-warranted/