U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services denied a petition to list the native Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“Our native Lake Sammamish kokanee are on the brink of extinction and we have had to resort to emergency hatchery supplementation – basically life support – to make future recovery possible,” said Dow Constantine, King County’s executive, in a press release.

Traditionally, the fish returned upstream into Issaquah and Sammamish in the tens of thousands. However, since 1996, they run an average of about 820 fish.

Three of the last four spawning runs have only yielded 150 fish. The Issaquah Salmon Hatchery officially launched a new project to help grow those numbers.

The freshwater fish didn’t qualify under the category “listable entity,” meaning it didn’t have a “special significance to the well-being of the species,” according to the release.

The important work in saving the Kokanee runs has already begun with help from USFWS, Issaquah Mayor Ava Frisinger said. “This decision is no excuse for the region to lose focus on our shared priorities for recovering this population.”