GRANTS PASS, Ore. — The Pacific smelt, a small silvery fish that was a staple of Northwest American Indian tribes when the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived, is getting federal protection because it’s been declining toward extinction due to global warming and other factors.
The fish, also known as eulachon or candlefish, will be listed as a threatened species in the Federal Register today, NOAA Fisheries Service said.
It is too early to tell whether the threatened species listing will shut down the very small commercial and recreational smelt fisheries regulated in state waters, said NOAA Fisheries biologist Garth Griffin. Those have already been reduced to a tiny impact on the population.
The Cowlitz Tribe in Washington state, which once depended on abundant catches of eulachon in the Columbia River for food and an item of trade, asked for the listing in 2007.
Just what will be done to protect the fish has not been determined.
Seattle: No sign of missing woman
Despite searches by divers, boats and aircraft, investigators have yet to turn up any solid leads in the weekend disappearance of a Silverdale woman and her 8-year-old son.
Shantina “Kat” Smiley, 29, and her son were en route to her stepfather’s house in southwest Washington when they vanished.
The van Smiley drove was found Sunday, abandoned and partially submerged on a remote Puget Sound beach in the Olympia area.
Investigators were talking to people who know Smiley or her son and those who may have met her Saturday night. Her fiance, Robb Simmons said Tuesday that Smiley is a recovering alcoholic who relapsed last week, KING-TV reported.
Simmons said she had been under stress lately. He had been having health issues and fears he might have cancer, and suggested this past week that they get married, he added. But he said he doesn’t believe the relapse played any role in her disappearance.
Associated Press
Waterville: Guilty plea in cruelty case
An Everett woman pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree animal cruelty and was sentenced to five days on a Department of Corrections work crew after law enforcement and animal control officials say they found several starving dogs and cats on a remote property near Mansfield last year.
The Douglas County Prosecutor’s Office charged Kathleen C. Walls, 49, on Nov. 10 with first- and second-degree animal cruelty. Walls, who declined to comment Monday, was also sentenced to 24 months of probation and $1,300 in fines and fees.
A case report submitted by Officer Kerry Bayliss with the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society said that on Oct. 22 she, Humane Society Sgt. Jody White, two Douglas County deputies and a Department of Social and Health Services employee drove to the isolated property to serve a search warrant on the property owner, who is not Walls, and knew several dogs and cats were on the property.
Bayliss’ report said the property owner’s four dogs were in relatively good health, though one of the dogs had an eye infection.
They also found Walls’ two caged dogs, both emaciated, and three cat kennels containing a total of five cats, one of which was dead and wrapped in a sheet. Bayliss’ report said all of the pens and kennels were covered with urine and feces and none of the animals had access to food or water.
The Wenatchee World
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