On January 6, 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed to list the splittail, Pogonichthys macrolepidotus, as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. The rationale for the Proposed Rule included: 1) splittail abundance has declined, 2) splittail distribution has been restricted, and 3) additional threats to splittail exist. On January 10, 1995, the USFWS extended the deadline for action on this proposal and reopened the comment period. Previously, the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) submitted comments, along with the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR), through the Resources Agency. CDFG also expressed concerns regarding potential biases of trawl indices for splittail directly to USFWS. During the comment period, CDFG reiterated these concerns and submitted them independently of CDWR. A federal moratorium on listing actions was imposed on April 10, 1995.

The moratorium was lifted on April 26, 1996, but budgetary constraints precluded further work on the splittail listing by the USFWS. On March 19 and 20, 1998, the CDWR and the State Water Contractors, respectively, requested the comment period be reopened. On May 18, 1998, the USFWS reopened the comment period, specifically requesting abundance and distribution data for splittail from 1995 through 1997 and comments on the relevance of the work by Sommer et al. (1997) to the proposed listing. In early June 1998, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity sued the USFWS to force a decision on splittail.

CDFG's previous comments of February 1995 remain valid. Comments provided herein will: 1) compare 1995-1997 abundance indices with those of previous years; 2) compare 1995-1997 distribution with earlier data, including some previously unavailable information (CDFG striped bass larval sampling from 1991 through 1994 and USFWS beach seine sampling from 1992 through 1997); and 3) discuss the relevance of these data to splittail life history and population status.