SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today proposed to designate 91,630 acres of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the critically imperiled San Francisco Bay population of longfin smelt. The formerly abundant native fish have seen their population plummet in recent decades.
Today’s proposal is the result of petitions first filed in 1994 and multiple lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and San Francisco Baykeeper to compel protection of the fish.
“These habitat protections are a critical lifeline for a fish species whose decline portends the loss of our valuable salmon runs and potentially all of the Bay-Delta’s native fishes,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Despite our rapidly heating planet, more and more water is being diverted for unsustainable industrial agriculture, sucking the life out of Central Valley rivers and the Delta.”
Critical habitat designation is a crucial tool under the Endangered Species Act. It requires federal agencies to ensure their actions don’t destroy or damage areas essential for the survival of endangered species, whether or not that habitat is currently occupied.
The areas to be protected for longfin smelt include waters of San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These encompass the most crucial habitats that provide the necessary water flows, temperature, salinity, turbidity and substrate conditions for smelt spawning, rearing and feeding.
“Like most of the Delta’s native fishes, longfin smelt need high river flows to reach San Francisco Bay in the winter and spring,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director for Baykeeper. “The mixing in the Delta of fresh and salt water creates the habitat that smelt, salmon, sturgeon and countless other fish depend on for survival. Continued unsustainable diversion of water threatens to extinguish the Bay’s longfin smelt and other native fish.”
Protections for longfin smelt will not affect human health or water supplies. Donald Trump has been spreading lies about protections for endangered fish species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta affecting the current Los Angeles wildfires. These falsehoods have been debunked, as the South Coast reservoirs supplied by Delta water are currently between 76% to 97% of capacity and well above average for this time of year.