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SEATTLE (AP) - Puget Sound steelhead were listed Monday as a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service said.
The agency proposed the listing about a year ago to cover naturally spawned steelhead from river basins in the Puget Sound, Hood Canal and the eastern half of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Also covered by the listing are two winter-run hatchery stocks: the Green River natural south of Seattle and the Hamma Hamma River on the Olympic Peninsula.
Agency biologists said the decline in the steelhead population has been widespread, likely because of degraded habitat, man-made barriers, unfavorable ocean conditions and harmful hatchery practices.
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