House Republicans Pass Bill to Repeal Endangered Species Listing for Longfin Smelt

Washington, D.C.— House Republicans on Thursday passed a bill, H.J. Res. 78, repealing the Biden Administration’s listing of the longfin smelt as “endangered” under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). 

Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), along with fellow California Republicans Vince Fong, Tom McClintock, and David Valadao, introduced the Congressional Review Act resolution on March 21.

Congress Members passed the resolution in a 216-195 vote. Three Democrats, including Jim Costa and Adam Gray from California, voted for the resolution while one Republican, Brian K Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted against it. The measure will now go to the Senate.  

The longfin smelt is a cousin of the Delta smelt, a fish that has been villainized by President Trump and MAGA Republicans like LaMalfa as a “worthless fish” in the California Water Wars.

Both fish species have declined dramatically in recent years, due to massive exports to corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies, along with other factors including toxics, pollution and invasive species. The Delta smelt has become virtually extinct in the wild, with the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey finding no Delta smelt in its native habitat for the past seven years.  

LaMalfa and corporate agribusiness interests applauded the passage of the legislation, while Congressman Jared Huffman and environmental and fishing groups condemned it.

Corporate agribusiness interests have been pushing to repeal the listing so they can  divert more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to grow almonds, pistachios and other export crops.

“The Biden Administration and activist judges have used this listing as a political tool to block progress on California water policy,” said Rep. LaMalfa in a statement.  “This listing is based on cherry picked scientific anecdotes and even Stanford’s Center for Water California Resources Policy and Management questioned the science of the listing. It adds yet another layer of conflicting regulations that dump tens of millions of acre feet of water out to the Pacific Ocean, with farmers receiving only 40% to 50% of their promised federal and state water.”

“Congress isn’t going to stand by while bureaucrats and environmental lawsuits continue to wreck the water system that feeds our farms, our families, and our economy. I’m glad to see the House take a stand and push back with real solutions that help us grow food, provide water, and keep our economy strong,” he claimed.  

Likewise, Congressman Valadao gushed, “The Biden Administration’s unnecessary decision to list the longfin smelt as an endangered species is yet another example of an environmental policy not grounded in science that puts fish over people. Our families and farmers are already struggling with burdensome regulations that restrict water deliveries and threaten the future of agriculture in the Central Valley, and this rule would have ensured even more of our water is sent out to sea.”

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) argued strongly against the resolution.

“They’re turning a small fish into a very large scapegoat, pretending it will somehow provide real support to farmers,” Huffman told Ian James of the LA Times: www.latimes.com/...

“The longfin population has declined over 99% since the 1980s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service followed the law, the data and the science, just as Congress intended,” said Huffman.  

Earthjustice issued a statement urging the Senate to oppose “this dangerous attack on the Endangered Species Act and all other public protections.” 

Removing protections will doom this little fish to extinction

After hearing that the resolution passed, John Buse, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Removing long-awaited protections for the longfin smelt will doom this little fish to extinction.”

"This struggling fish has been warning us for decades of the poor water quality in the Bay-Delta system, which has been deteriorating largely because of climate change and poor water management. Instead of addressing the climate disasters of droughts and wildfires, Republicans are wasting time scapegoating an endangered fish,” he explained. 

Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Association (GSSA), noted that the resolution repeals the listing “in order to increase water diversions from the Delta—actions that would further degrade #salmon habitat and water quality in the region.” 

In January of this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to designate 91,630 acres of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the critically imperiled San Francisco Bay population of longfin smelt. This designation apparently triggered the introduction of the resolution by LaMalfa.

The critical habitat proposal was the result of petitions first filed in 1994 and multiple lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and San Francisco Baykeeper to compel protection of the fish.  

“Critical habitat designation is a crucial tool under the Endangered Species Act that requires federal agencies to ensure their actions don’t destroy or damage areas essential for the survival of endangered species, whether or not that habitat is currently occupied,” the groups said in a press release in January.

The groups said the areas to be protected for longfin smelt include the waters of San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These areas encompass the most crucial habitats that provide the necessary water flows, temperature, salinity, turbidity and substrate conditions for smelt spawning, rearing and feeding. 

“Like most of the Delta’s native fishes, longfin smelt need high river flows to reach San Francisco Bay in the winter and spring,” said Jon Rosenfield, science director for Baykeeper. “The mixing in the Delta of fresh and salt water creates the habitat that smelt, salmon, sturgeon and countless other fish depend on for survival.”

“Continued unsustainable diversion of water threatens to extinguish the Bay’s longfin smelt and other native fish,” Rosenfield stated. 

Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations are in worst-ever crisis

The bill was passed at a time when the Bay-Delta Estuary and its once abundant fish populations are in their worst-ever crisis. Commercial salmon fishing in California ocean waters will be banned for the third year in a row, due to the collapse of Sacramento River and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon populations.

Sacramento River Fall-Run Chinook, historically the largest contributor to ocean salmon harvest off California and Oregon, have experienced dramatic declines over the last 5 years, according to the GSSA. Between 1996-2005 the average return for fall-run Chinook on the mainstem Sacramento River was 79,841 spawning salmon. In 2023 that number fell drastically to only 3,560 salmon – a 95% decline. 

“Similarly,spring-run Chinook have also experienced a staggering 95% decline due to a lack of cold water flows in Central Valley rivers. The average wild and hatchery spring-run return plummeted from 28,238 fish in 2021 to just 1,231 salmon in 2023,” the GSSA said. 

Zero Delta smelt, an endangered fish species that indicates the health of the Bay-Delta, were caught in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey (FMWT) in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2024 for the seventh year in a row.

The Delta smelt was once the most abundant fish in the Delta, numbering in the millions, but now is functionally extinct in the wild due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors, including invasive species, toxics and pollution, over the past several decades.  

It is significant that zero Delta smelt were caught in the survey despite the release of tens of thousands of hatchery-raised Delta smelt into the Delta over the past few years by the state and federal governments.

“The 2024 abundance index was 0 and continues the trend of no catch in the FMWT since 2017,” reported  Taylor Rohlin, CDFW Environmental Scientist Bay Delta Region in a Jan. 2 memo to Erin Chappell, Regional Manager Bay Delta Region: nrm.dfg.ca.gov/ 

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has conducted the Fall Midwater Trawl Survey (FMWT) to index the fall abundance of pelagic (open water) fishes annually since 1967 (except 1974 and 1979), Rohlin stated.  

The other fish species collected in the fall survey — longfin smelt, striped bass, Sacramento splittail and threadfin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the threadfin shad showed an increase from the 2023 index — and the population is still at just a fraction of its former abundance.

The survey uses an “abundance index,” a relative measure of abundance, to document general patterns in population change.

The index was 175 for longfin smelt, representing a 62% decrease from last year’s index.

The 2024 abundance index for striped bass, an introduced gamefish, was 136, representing a 49% decrease from last year’s index. 

The index was 577 for threadfin shad, an introduced forage fish, representing a 12% increase from last year’s index.

The index for American shad, an introduced gamefish, was 1341, representing a 45% decrease from last year’s index.

The index for Sacramento splittail, a native minnow species, was 0, with 0 fish caught. 

Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom has been pushing three projects — the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the Voluntary Agreements — that fish advocates say would hasten the extinction of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento winter-run and spring-run Chinook populations, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon.