FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2000
Contact: Brian Gorman
(206) 526-6613

The federal agency charged with restoring more than two dozen populations of West Coast salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act has appointed a panel of scientists to guide technical work on the fishes recovery over the next several years, it announced today.

"This is a significant step in the salmon-recovery process," said Usha Varanasi, head of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. The center, in concert with its southwest counterpart in La Jolla, Calif., will oversee the panel's work.

"When this prestigious group convenes in Seattle next month it will represent in one place perhaps the most comprehensive body of knowledge on conservation biology in the nation," Varanasi added.

The six-member group of independent scientists, chosen after a five-month search from almost 40 candidates, will oversee the work of about nine technical recovery teams that in turn will set biological goals needed for salmon recovery in the Northwest and California. The first technical team--examining Puget Sound chinook, chum and sockeye--was appointed last month. A second technical team, to examine listed fish in the lower Columbia and Willamette rivers, is expected to be named in the next few months.

Recovery plans are required following a listing under the Endangered Species Act. They set standards for recovery and outline the steps need to improve a protected population's status to the point where it can be removed from the endangered species list.

NOAA Fisheries has listed 26 populations of salmon and steelhead in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California.

The panel is expected to carry out a variety of tasks, including:

Reviewing elements of the recovery planning process being developed by the fisheries service.

Ensuring soundness of the science that will form the basis for all recovery efforts.

Reviewing work of the technical recovery teams.

Varanasi said that the panel's work, and the entire recovery process, would be "long-term and very complex." She added, however, that any recovery plans would build on efforts already underway in many areas, including work being done by state and local governments, Indian tribes and private conservation groups.

"Salmon recovery should be high on everyone's agenda," said Robert Paine, a marine community ecologist from the University of Washington and the panel's chairman. "Working with this group of distinguished scientists assembled by the National Marine Fisheries Service will be a privilege. The challenge is real; the problem significant. The solution requires both difficult and novel science and a more global perspective."

In addition to Paine, review panelists are:
    · Ted Case, an evolutionary biologist from the University of California, San Diego
    · Fran James, a conservation biologist from Florida State University
    · Russ Lande, an evolutionary biologist and population geneticist from the University of California, San Diego
    · Si Levin, a theoretical and mathematical ecologist from Princeton University
    · William Murdoch, a theoretical and experimental population ecologist from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The members of the panel will serve three-year terms. Technical team members serve two-year terms.

There is more information about recovery efforts on the Northwest Fisheries Science Center's Web page at www.nwfsc.noaa.gov.

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