“So why worry about some fish no one cares about?”
All that evolutionary and extinction by natural causes stopped when the US got rich enough to intervene in nature. The plight of the Northern Spotted owl was, of course, the fault of those horrible, horrible companies who were logging. So, all logging stopped to save the owl. Last I heard the Northern Spotted Owl was being wiped out by another species of owl who thrived in the increased available woodland. So, both problems were caused by evil, evil companies making a profit. BAD companies!
As for the missing fish...it was delicious.