From: Kieran Suckling
[ksuckling@biologicaldiversity.org]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001
11:04 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY
ACTIVIST
#265
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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL
DIVERSITY
<www.biologicaldiversity.org>
2-11-00
#265
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Marine and Pacific Islands Program Update
§ PETITION FILED TO LIST
PACIFIC RED SNAPPER UNDER ESA-
1ST COMMERCIAL MARINE FISH TO
APPROACH EXTINCTION
§ SUIT TO PROTECT BOWHEAD WHALE HABITAT
§ SUIT
TO PROTECT NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE HABITAT
§ SUIT CHALLENGES BOMBING OF
ISLAND SONGBIRDS & BATS
§ SUIT TO PROTECT FOUR ISLAND FOX
SUBSPECIES
§ SILENCE OF THE CLAMS: REPORT DOCUMENTS DECLINE
OF
COLORADO RIVER DELTA, NEAR EXTINCTION OF
CLAMS
PETITION FILED TO LIST PACIFIC RED SNAPPER UNDER ESA-
1ST
COMMERCIAL MARINE FISH TO APPROACH EXTINCTION
On 1-25-01, the Center for
Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense
Council and the Center for
Marine Conservation petitioned the National
Marine Fisheries Service to list
the Pacific red snapper (also called
“bocaccio”) as a federally “threatened
species” in California. As the first
commercial marine species to have
declined to a level at which extinction
is possible, the fate of the snapper
heralds a growing crisis in commercial
fisheries around the
world.
Bocaccio once was the dominant species of rockfish caught by
trawl
fishermen on the Pacific coast, but its numbers have declined 98%
since
1969. Overfishing is the principle threat, with habitat degradation
likely
being a contributing factor as well. In recent decades commercial
fishing
technology has advanced tremendously making fish-finding
equipment
highly accurate, nets stronger, and fishing gear more versatile.
Combined
with an increase in fishing boats, expanded fishing areas and
inadequate
management, these innovations have led to severe over-fishing.
The habitats of both young and adult bocaccio are also under
pressure.
The piers, rocky areas and kelp forests inhabited by young bocaccio
are
near the urbanized coast and are degraded by stormwater runoff, oil
spills
and other pollution. The deep waters favored by adult bocaccio have
been
altered by the repeated scraping of the ocean floor by heavy trawl nets
and other bottom-fishing gear.
______________________
SUIT TO BE FILED TO PROTECT BOWHEAD WHALE
HABITAT
On 2-12-01, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice
of
intent to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to
respond
to a Center petition to designate critical habitat for the
Bering-Chukchi-
Beaufort stock of the bowhead whale.
The bowhead whale
is listed as an endangered species. The Bering-
Chukchi-Beaufort Sea stock is
the largest and most viable of five extant
bowhead stocks, but tragically is
the most threatened by human activity.
Large-scale industrial development
and the associated vessel traffic of
the oil and gas industry have
proliferated within the bowhead’s habitat
since the late 1970’s. No fewer
than five massive offshore projects are
currently in operation or in the
planning stages in the Beaufort Sea, and
an additional four onshore
facilities produce at least some of their oil from
offshore.
The
Center’s petition presented scientific evidence showing that the
Beaufort Sea
should be designated and protected as “critical habitat”
for the bowhead
whale. The National Marine Fisheries Service, however,
has ignored the
petition for over 60-days.
______________________
SUIT TO BE FILED TO PROTECT RIGHT WHALE
HABITAT
On 2-12-01, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice
of intent
to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to respond
to a
Center petition to designate critical habitat for the northern right
whale.
Once abundant in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the
Northern right
whale is now the most endangered whale in the world. Prized
for its oil and
baleen plates—and preferred for its slow speed and
floating-carcass
characteristic—commercial whalers deemed right whales the
“right whale”
to hunt, and nearly extirpated the Northern right whale from
both oceans.
Today there may be only 300 right whales left in the Atlantic
Ocean, and
perhaps only 100 left in the Pacific.
The Center’s
scientific petition requested that part of the Bering Sea be
designated and
protected as “critical habitat” for the Pacific population of
the northern
right whale. To find out more about the right whale and see
maps of the
recommended critical habitat area:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/species/right/nprw1.html>
____________________
SUIT CHALLENGES BOMBING PACIFIC ISLAND SONGBIRDS
& BATS
On 1-19-01, the Center for Biological Diversity file suit stop the
U.S. Navy
from bombing the island of Farallon de Medinilla. The 200 acre
island lays
45 nautical miles north of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the
Northern
Mariana Islands. For a map see:
<www.guam.net/pub/sshs/depart/science/mancuso/marianas/fdm/med.htm>
Uninhabited
by humans, Farallon de Medinilla hosts breeding colonies of
Great
frigatebirds; Masked, Red-footed, and Brown boobys; red and
white-tailed
tropicbirds; White and Sooty terns; Brown and Black noddys;
and other
migratory seabirds. It is one of only two small breeding colonies
of the
Great frigatebird in the Mariana Island chain and the largest nesting
site
for masked boobies in the Mariana and Caroline Islands. The
Micronesian
megapode (a bird) and the Mariana fruit bat, both listed as
endangered under
the Endangered Species Act, also inhabit the island. To
find out more about
the megapode:
<http://www.r1.fws.gov/pacific/wesa/megapodeindex.html>
The
Navy and other branches of the U.S. military, use Farallon de
Medinilla
throughout the year for target practice including air-to-surface
gunnery with
missiles and rockets; bombing runs with 500-, 750-, and 2000-lbs
bombs;
precision-guided munitions; mines; target practice with deck-mounted
guns;
grenades, machine guns, and shoulder-launched missiles.
The
Migratory Bird Treaty Act, one of the oldest conservation statutes
in
existence, has since 1918 flatly prohibited harm to migratory birds absent
a
permit from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The Service refused to
issue
such a permit to the Navy in 1996, but the Navy has continued to bomb
the
island anyway, claiming that the Treaty Act doesn't apply to
federal
agencies. The Center for Biological Diversity is asking the court to
declare
that the statute does indeed apply, and to issue an injunction
halting all
live-fire exercises on the island unless and until the Navy
complies fully with
the Treaty Act.
In a related suit, the Center for
Biological Diversity and the Marianas
Audubon Society filed challenged the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s failure
to map out and designate critical
habitat for seven endangered species on
Guam, including the Mariana fruit
bat, little Mariana fruit bat, Mariana crow,
Guam rail, Guam Micronesian
kingfisher, Guam broadbill, and Guam
bridled white-eye. For information on
this suit:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/guam.html>
Both
suits are being argued by David Henkin of the Earthjustice Legal
Defense Fund
(Honolulu).
___________________
SUIT TO BE
FILED TO PROTECT FOUR ISLAND FOX SUBSPECIES
On 12-4-00, the Center for
Biological Diversity formally notified the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service
that it will file suit over the agency’s failure to
respond to a petition by
the Center and the Institute for Wildlife Studies to
list four subspecies of
island fox as endangered species.
Though weighing less than 5.5 pounds
the San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa
Cruz, and Santa Catalina Island foxes are
top level predators of great
importance to the Channel Islands ecosystem of
southern California. They
are the largest native mammals, and the largest
native terrestrial predators
on the islands. Their extinction would be a
tremendous loss to California’s
unique natural heritage and the ecological
balance of the Channel Islands.
The San Miguel Island fox has dropped
from a historic population of about
450 in 1994 to 15 in 1999. Just one
remains in the wild. The Santa Rosa
Island fox may now be down to as few as
10 foxes in the wild. Despite the
dire status of the foxes, the Fish &
Service refuses to process the petition,
citing an illegal, self-imposed
moratorium on protecting new species under
the Endangered Species
Act.
To learn more about the island fox:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/fox.html>
To
learn more about the moratorium and what you can do to end it:
<http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/ESA/moratorium.html>
______________________
SILENCE OF THE CLAMS: REPORT DOCUMENTS DECLINE
OF
COLORADO RIVER DELTA, NEAR EXTINCTION OF CLAMS
A study by Dr. Karl
Flessa of the University of Arizona in the journal
Geology documents
a 95% decline in populations of a native clam species
in the Colorado River
Delta since the 1930's when dams and water
diversions began to dramatically
alter the U.S. side of the river. Like many
species in the Delta and northern
Gulf of California, the clam requires fresh
water flows from the Colorado
River. In many years, however, the
diversions and dams prevent any water from
reaching Mexico or the Delta.
The Delta formerly supported six billion
clams at a time, five in every
square foot. Today there is only one clam in
every three square feet with
many areas completely devoid of the species. In
research sponsored by
the Center for Biological Diversity and the National
Science Foundation,
Dr. Flessa is studying the distribution and taxonomy of
the species.
__________________
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