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On April 11, the National Marine Fishery Service posted on the Federal Register its decision to deny the Sierra Club's petition to list the Lynn Canal Pacific Herring population as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

However, NMFS did make a decision to do a regionalwide status review of all Southeast Alaska herring populations to determine if the combined populations deserve a listing under the act. For this, the Sierra Club compliments NMFS.

In regards to NMFS's decision to not list the Lynn Canal herring population as a separate and distinct population deserving ESA listing, we are disappointed. Based on the science data available to us, it is clear their decision about distinctness was wrong.

The documents the Sierra Club provided to NMFS in our petition included many documents from NMFS's own Southeast Alaska biologists. These documents indicated that the Lynn Canal herring population did not migrate to other areas and that the populations summered and wintered in the Lynn Canal-Berners Bay area.

There were no documents that provided evidence that other Southeast Alaska herring populations had migrated to the Lynn Canal-Berners Bay area. Without any evidence of a commingling of other populations with the Lynn Canal population, NMFS's decision should have been that the Lynn Canal population is quite possibly a distinct population that deserved listing on its own. If there is any new data that commingling between the Lynn Canal population and other populations has taken place, the Sierra Club is not yet aware of it. We hope we can work with NMFS to resolve and deal with our different opinions on the issue of distinctness. One way to do this is to update DNA comparisons between Southeast herring populations.

When the Endangered Species Act was legislated, the sponsors of the act maintained that when there was contradictory data, or when there was data that was not rock solid, the agencies should take a conservative road in their decision making. They should act in favor of protecting the species until more definitive data is available.

As noted in NMFS's review document, a majority of the seven-member science team agreed that the Lynn Canal population was not a distinct population. This indicates that there were team members that thought the population was distinct. The Sierra Club believes that if there was a split decision, then NMFS should have taken the conservative road.

One point that the Sierra Club and NMFS agree on is that it is essential that the Southeast Alaskan herring populations be protected. The Lynn Canal population has been depleted for three decades, and the Lynn Canal commercial fishery has been banned for 25 years. At one point it was the best herring fishery in Southeast Alaska. There is still a remnant population whose recovery depends on maintaining spawning habitat. The areas where the remnant population has spawned over the last two decades are the tidal areas in Berners Bay and the tidal areas just south of Berners Bay. These spawning areas are under increased risk from road and boat dock development. It is a disappointment that NMFS has decided to not do a risk analysis in regards to these developments, which would have been required if an ESA listing had taken place.

It is of extreme importance to note that not only humans are dependent on abundant herring populations for their uses, but many other species such as salmon, humpback whales, sea lions and wild fowls use herring populations for a food source.

The Sierra Club's next step is to do a thorough review of the 155-page status review, which was made public a few days ago. We will consult with our science consultants and then decide what actions would be appropriate to deal with the NMFS's denial of our petition. Our hope is that we can obtain more science data that will clarify issues such as distinct populations, taxonomy and significance. We will continue to do our best to make sure that critical herring spawning habitat is protected.

• Mark Rorick is chairman of the Juneau Group of the Sierra Club.