Smelt may be put on protected species list

TACOMA – Federal officials plan to put together a scientific team to consider whether runs of smelt, a tiny fish that enjoys almost iconic status in southwest Washington, deserve special protection.

A decision on whether to recommend listing smelt as vulnerable to extinction under the Endangered Species Act is expected in November, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

NOAA Fisheries, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, on Wednesday formally accepted a petition from the Cowlitz Indian Tribe to protect smelt populations in Washington, Oregon and California. The tribe submitted its request in November.

The federal action is “long overdue,” said tribal Chairman John Barnett. “We didn’t want to see this important part of our heritage disappear.”

Fish biologist Sam Wright also was heartened by the news. “Hey, great. It (smelt) should get listed. It’s down to a record low,” said the Olympia resident, whose 1999 petition to list Columbia River smelt was rejected by the Fisheries Service.

Smelt, also called eulachon or candlefish, are skinny, little, oily oceangoing fish. They’ve lured fishermen to the Columbia River and its tributaries for hundreds of years. After American Indians introduced the fish to explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Lewis raved about how tasty they were in an 1806 journal entry.

Smelt typically return to the rivers to spawn in late winter. In the past, their numbers were so great that sport fishermen with long-handled nets could catch their limit in a single dip. People fry smelt, smoke them and use them as bait in the sturgeon fishery.

Historically, smelt ranged from Northern California to Alaska. But experts say they’ve disappeared from California’s Sacramento and Oregon’s Rogue and Klamath rivers.

Now the Columbia River system is the only river system south of the Canadian border where smelt persist.

Nobody tracks the recreational smelt catch, but Washington and Oregon fisheries managers have collected data on commercial landings since 1938.

Because the fish are small, catch is measured by weight. The annual haul once ranged as high as nearly 6 million pounds and averaged more than 2 million pounds until 1993. In 2005, the total bottomed out at 200 pounds. Since then, numbers have increased, but not significantly.