Petition To List the Washington Coast Chinook Salmon As Threatened or Endangered Under the ESA

In December 2023, we, NOAA Fisheries, announced a 90-day finding on a petition to list spring-run Chinook salmon on the Washington Coast (WC) or, alternatively, list the existing WC Chinook salmon Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) as threatened or endangered under the ESA. The petitioners also requested the designation of critical habitat concurrent with ESA listing. We found that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial information indicating the petitioned action to list may be warranted. As a result, we conducted a status review of Chinook salmon on the Washington Coast to determine whether the petitioned action to list is indeed warranted.

In particular, the NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region (WCR) requested that the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) initiate and lead a status review team to complete a status review of the species to evaluate the extinction risk of the species. We subsequently announced the availability of the NWFSC’s Biological Status of Washington Coast Chinook Salmon: Report of the Status Review Team .

On February 19, 2026, we published a 12-month finding announcing that WC Chinook salmon do not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act. Based on our review of the best available scientific and commercial information including the findings of the status review report, we determined that the WC Chinook salmon ESU is not currently in danger of extinction, nor is it likely to become so within the foreseeable future, throughout all or a significant portion of their range. We also determined the spring-run component of the WC does not meet the ESU Policy, and the WC Chinook salmon ESU should not be partitioned based on run-timing.

In the extinction risk assessment for WC Chinook salmon, we concluded that the ESU is at low-risk of extinction and does not warrant listing under the ESA. The ESU has high overall abundance, with numerous, well-distributed spawning populations. Habitat conditions and connectivity are generally good, and current Federal, state and Tribal management strategies have helped address historical threats. Additionally, the ESU’s high productivity allows WC Chinook salmon to maintain abundance even in the face of relatively high exploitation rates. In evaluation of the threat factors identified in section 4(a)(1) of the ESA, we find that overall the factors contribute to a low extinction risk rangewide now and in the foreseeable future. We followed the rangewide assessment with a significant portion of its range extinction risk assessment and we did not find any portions of the WC Chinook salmon range that were both significant and facing higher risk of extinction than the ESU rangewide.