The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to reclassify the tidewater goby from endangered to threatened because it “is not likely to become extinct in the foreseeable future,” officials said this week. The goby — a small, gray-brown fish that inhabits lagoons, marshes, and freshwater tributaries along California’s coastline — was listed as endangered in 1994, but its numbers have since bounced back. A down-listing from endangered to threatened wouldn’t remove the protections the goby currently receives under the Endangered Species Act, but it would better reflect its conservation status, Wildlife officials said.
