Lampreys could be focus of next endangered species fight
Chico Enterprise Record - 2/10/03
By Larry Mitchell, staff writer

A move to save lampreys - eel-like creatures that live in Big Chico Creek and other local streams - raises issues about the Endangered Species Act that will continue to be chewed over this year.

Two of the questions:
* Are these critters really rare?
* Are the people pushing their listing as endangered being honest?

Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity announced it and 10 other conservation groups had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list four species of lampreys as threatened or endangered.

The last time he looked, the Pacific lamprey, one of the four species in question, didn't seem exactly scarce in Bidwell Park, said Paul Maslin, a retired biology professor from Chico State University.

A few years ago, you could go to One-Mile Dam Recreation Area, dig in the mud after the pool had been cleaned, and find thousands of little Pacific lampreys, he recalled. But on the other hand, he said, in all the years he's poked around local streams, he's only seen another of the four species, the river lamprey, a couple of times.

Skepticism about a campaign to save the lampreys was expressed by Congressman Wally Herger, R-Chico, and Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Richvale.

"Unfortunately, it seems this is just another ploy to halt growth," said Herger, in a statement. "This is not about saving particular species. It's about using those species as a means to an end. The more species (environmentalists) have got listed, the greater their ability to affect growth decisions and local actions."

La Malfa, vice chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, said arguments for listing lampreys may have merit, but he is doubtful. The real goal seems to be hindering ordinary people from access to such values as safe highways, affordable housing and inexpensive, pure food.

Environmentalist Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said his group's motives are genuine: "We really want to preserve these species."

But he acknowledged there is a larger goal - ensuring the health of river systems. "We pick species we think require a healthy river system," he said, explaining that if those species are protected, the rivers will be healthy. Most river systems in California and the Northwest are "ecosystems under collapse," he said.

The Eel River got its name because it was home to a huge population of lampreys (mistakenly called "eels"), but now lampreys are not at all common there, Miller said.

Lampreys are "an ancient species," Maslin said, explaining the boneless creatures, which breathe through gills, developed very early, found an evolutionary niche and remained much the same over the eons.

Most lampreys are anadromous, like salmon. They're born in streams and rivers, go out to the ocean for a time and then return to their freshwater birthplaces to spawn and die.

In their larval (early) stage, which may last six years, lampreys are typically only a couple of inches long. They live in the muddy silt of the stream bottom and feed by using their jawless mouth to filter algae from the water.

In the ocean, where lampreys spend a year or two, they can grow to be a couple of feet long, according to Maslin.

Some lampreys are parasitic: They attach themselves to ocean fish and draw sustenance from the fishes' body fluids. Although parasitic lampreys damage and kill some fish, Miller said, they also act as "a buffer," protecting salmon and other fish from being decimated by seals and sea lions. Blubbery lamprey flesh is a delicacy to seals and sea lions. When lampreys are plentiful in the ocean, there is less loss of salmon and other fish to such predators.

Herger and La Malfa complained that environmentalists often haven't had solid scientific evidence to back up claims that this or that species is in serious decline.

But Miller cited studies showing a severe drop in the lamprey population.

"Annual counts of Pacific lampreys at the Red Bluff diversion dam on the upper Sacramento River have declined from 38,492 in 1972 to 107 or less since 1996," stated a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

According to the release, counts of Pacific lamprey have declined from 50,000 in the early 1960s to less than 1,000 during the 1990s on the Snake River and from 46,785 in 1966 to less than 50 annually since 1995 on the North Umpqua River.

"As with Pacific salmon populations, all of the lamprey species petitioned for have been heavily impacted by water developments, poor agricultural and forestland management practices, and rapid urbanization of many watersheds," Miller said.

The center, which is based in Tucson and has offices in San Francisco and other cities, asked Fish and Wildlife to list Pacific lamprey, river lamprey, Western brook lamprey and the Kern brook lamprey. All but the latter species have been found in the Sacramento River water system.

John Merz, director of the Sacramento River Preservation Trust, said he's aware that lampreys are found in local streams, but said he didn't know whether local populations have declined.

Merz said there's value in proposing new species for listing. But also, he said, it's important for Congress to allocate more money to Fish and Wildlife so work can be done to get some species off the endangered list.

It seems certain that efforts will be made in Congress this year to change the Endangered Species Act. No such bills have been proposed yet in the House, but the House Resources Committee is still getting organized, with Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, a friend to agriculture, as its new chairman.

Pombo was one of the authors of a bill last year that would have required decisions about endangered species to be based on "sound, peer-reviewed science."

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