Feds won’t list coaster brook trout as threatened.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday it will not list Great Lakes coaster brook trout under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency has been reviewing since 2006 a petition by two Michigan environmental groups that sought federal protection for the native fish now found only in Lake Superior near a few streams.

While it has acknowledged brook trout in the Great Lakes have declined for the past century, Fish and Wildlife Service officials determined the coaster is not a “distinct population” from other brook trout and it doesn’t deserve special designation because the overall brook trout population is not in peril.

The agency said it instead will begin a native brook trout “status assessment” to better understand the fish. Agency officials note they already have worked with state and tribal agencies to survey, study and restore coaster brookies.

“We know coaster brook trout in the Great Lakes face a number of challenges, as do many Great Lakes fisheries,” Tom Melius, Midwest regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. “The service is committed to its ongoing coaster brook trout conservation and rehabilitation efforts.”

Marvin Roberson of the Sierra Club’s Mackinac Chapter said his group hasn’t decided whether to challenge the agency’s ruling in court.

“We find it odd that they have an entire Web page dedicated to restoring coaster brook trout yet say coasters aren’t any different than regular trout,’’ Roberson said.

Coaster brook trout spend a portion of their life cycle in the Great Lakes. At one time, there were more than 50 runs in the U.S. waters of Lake Superior. They formerly were found in Lakes Huron and Michigan, where they now are extinct.

Today, there are only four known wild populations in the U.S. waters of Lake Superior, all in Michigan — one in the Salmon Trout River in the Upper Peninsula and three on Isle Royale.

Efforts are under way to protect coasters from overharvest and redesign or remove dams blocking stream access. There also have been initiatives for more than a decade to stock coaster brook trout near their historic North Shore and South Shore streams, and there have been some signs of increasing numbers and size of fish along some Minnesota and Wisconsin streams of Lake Superior.

The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, began stocking brook trout eggs in reservation streams in 1992 and continue stocking young brook trout annually. The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa near Bayfield stocks brook trout in tributaries there. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has stocked brook trout in the Nipigon River watershed.

John Myers , Duluth News Tribune
Published: 05/19/2009

Thanks for the information North Star.