Coastal Cutthroat Trout
Oncorhynchus clarki clarki
of Washington and Oregon
Coastal cutthroat trout historically occurred throughout coastal drainages of Oregon and Washington and in most lower Columbia River tributaries east to Fifteenmile Creek in Oregon and the Klickitat River in Washington. Sea-run populations of cutthroat trout once supported robust recreational fisheries. In the lower Columbia River, for example, coastal cutthroat trout supported a large sport fishery as recently as 1985, but sport-angler catch and effort has dramatically declined since then. Throughout their range, sea-run cutthroat trout have declined in the past 20 years, and their status may be more critical than other anadromous salmonids of the Pacific Northwest. Many populations are considered depressed and some may be extinct.
Coastal cutthroat trout were petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1997, and the species was recently classified as "sensitive" in Oregon. We have even less information on the status of nonanadromous(potamodromous) forms of this species. To address this lack of information, there was a critical and immediate need to identify the location, life history form(e.g. anadromous or nonanadromous), estimated size, and likelihood of persistence for existing populations of coastal cutthroat trout in Oregon and Washington.
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