Green Sturgeon Moves Closer to Protected Status. The National Marine Fisheries Service ("NMFS") made a formal finding today that listing the green sturgeon as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act ("ESA") may be warranted. The finding is based on a petition submitted by the Environmental Protection Information Center ("EPIC"), Center for Biological Diversity and WaterKeepers Northern California in June 2001, which NMFS found presented substantial information to indicate the prehistoric fish should be added to the growing list of endangered migratory fish species. NMFS now has until June 2002 to conduct a status review of the species and to make a final determination as to whether listing of the green sturgeon as endangered or threatened is warranted. The green sturgeon is one of the world's most ancient species, and has remained virtually unchanged since it appeared more than 200 million years ago. Water quality and quantity problems have severely impacted the species, and the petition documents an 88% decline in most of the sturgeon’s range and the loss of the majority of its spawning populations over the last four decades. Dams, water diversions, pollution, and over-fishing have reduced the green sturgeon to only three remaining spawning populations - in the Sacramento River and Klamath-Trinity River basins in California, and the Rogue River in Oregon. All of these populations are at critically low levels.

Poor fish going to be gone forever if measures not taken to stop fishing for it.