Sorry Jen, but coho ARE native south of San Francisco. A recent report by Kenneth Gobalet et al, states, "there is no question that coho salmon were native to San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties," contradicting claims to the contrary by Big Creek Lumber and the Central Coast Forest Association.

The report cites samples of coho remains dating from 1895 that were collected by Cloudsley Rutter in streams south of San Francisco which are in the collection of the California Academy of Sciences.

In addition, this new report says that it takes examining around 7,500 diagnostic elements to find one coho remain. In the Central Coast only 1,100 elements have been reviewed to date.

The report copyrighted by The American Fisheries Society also recognizes that the coho and steelhead bones may not preserve as well as other species because of different mineralization bone density. The authors do not discuss the idea that indigenous peoples may have found coho bones more digestible and therefore consumed them, also leaving the middens poor in coho bones.

Big Creek Lumber and the Central Coast Forest Association both filed petitions with NOAA to delist coho salmon south of San Francisco on the grounds that they do not believe the fish are native to our streams. (Copies of their petitions and supporting arguments can be viewed at: www.ccfassociation.org)

To further their argument, Big Creek Lumber hired Kenneth Gobalet from CSU Bakersfield to examine middens in the Central Coast region. Gobalet’s team was unable to identify any coho remains, but did state that "absence of evidence should not be construed as evidence of absence".

However, Gobalet’s latest report concludes that coho are native to the Central Coast, in part because specimens dating from 1895 (prior to introduction of any hatchery fish), that were collected by Cloudsley Rutter in streams south of San Francisco, are in the collection of the California Academy of Sciences. In reference to the small sampling size reviewed to date, the latest Gobalet report states, "Because of this paucity of materials, far more sampling is required to use the archaeological record as definitive evidence for the absence of coho salmon from this section of coast. This is particularly important to acknowledge, because there is no question that coho salmon were native to San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties (Behnke 2002; P.B. Moyle, personal communication)."