Title : Green sturgeon recovery: Focus on habitat connectivity and fish passage
Abstract:
The California Central Valley Area Office (CCVO), in the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region is tasked with the challenge of recovering Endangered Species Act-listed species under their jurisdiction. However, given limited resources and the many threats to recovery faced by these species, it is critical that the CCVO is efficient with those resources and accurately track progress made towards recovery. Currently the Southern Distinct Population Segment (sDPS) of North American Green Sturgeon are denied adequate passage between their historic spawning and feeding sites due to exclusionary fish passage ladders in the California Central Valley. The current fish passage ladders are primarily designed to assist salmonid species in the Central Valley, leaving green sturgeon with relatively degraded migratory corridors. The sDPS is ESA-listed as threatened species, and barriers limiting habitat connectivity are a significant threat to their recovery. Due to different physiological constraints, passage for green sturgeon is starkly different compared to salmonids, and recovery actions need to focus on efforts to further assist habitat connectivity and passage for sDPS. Using a database I developed for tracking green sturgeon recovery actions, and a similar database for salmonid recovery actions, I focused on specific actions that address both green sturgeon and salmonid recovery to highlight how and why passage criteria needs to be adjusted to assist in the recovery of both species.
