No. 315, August 24, 2002
********************************** CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Biodiversity Activist August 24, 2002 www.biologicaldiversity.org
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BUSH ADMINISTRATION FAILS TO ENFORCE MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT
LAWSUIT FILED TO PROTECT WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND SEA LIONS FROM DROWNING IN FISHING NETS
TUMBLING CREEK CAVESNAIL LISTED AS ENDANGERED
SUIT FILED TO PROTECT RARE SANTA CRUZ AREA PLANT
BONNIE RAITT JOINS CENTER IN RESISTANCE TO AN ATTACK ON CA'S STRONGEST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
ESA PROTECTION: CLINTON 151, BUSH 20
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BUSH ADMINISTRATION FAILS TO ENFORCE MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT
LAWSUIT FILED TO PROTECT WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND SEA LIONS FROM DROWNING IN FISHING NETS
On August 14, 2002, the Center for Biological Diversity, along with the Turtle Island Restoration Network and Oceana filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The suit seeks to force NMFS to reduce the killing of marine mammals in commercial fishing gear. The MMPA requires that all fisheries were to have reduced mortality and serious injury of marine mammals to "insignificant levels approaching zero" by April of last year. Unfortunately, for 57 marine mammal populations, this goal has not been met.
The MMPA requires NMFS to reduce bycatch of marine mammals by convening Take Reduction Teams whose purpose is to develop Take Reduction Plans. A Take Reduction Plan is designed to reduce marine mammal mortality by imposing restrictions or modifications on fisheries that kill large numbers of marine mammals. Such changes in the fishery typically include such things as gear modification (smaller or shorter nets or lines), devices called "pingers" designed to scare marine mammals away from nets, and restrictions on when and where a fishery can operate. To date, NMFS has convened only six Take Reduction Teams and produced only three Take Reduction Plans.
The Center's lawsuit seeks to force NMFS to convene Take Reduction Teams for ten at-risk populations of marine mammals where fisheries mortality is particularly high. Close to a hundred harbor porpoises are killed each year off the California coast by gillnets. Four hundred common dolphins and over two hundred pilot whales are killed in the Atlantic each year by longline and trawl fisheries. Humpback whales are killed in unsustainable numbers by fisheries in both the Atlantic and Pacific. These and other species will all benefit from the Take Reduction Plans NMFS will be forced to implement as a result of the lawsuit.
The Center is represented in this case by Sylvia Liu of Oceana, Aaron Courtney of the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, and by Center attorney Brendan Cummings.
Further information on the lawsuit and on marine mammals can be found at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/press/mmpa8-14-02.html
Press release: http://ens-news.com/ens/aug2002/2002-08-14-07.asp
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TUMBLING CREEK CAVESNAIL LISTED AS ENDANGERED
In keeping with an agreement brokered by the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Native Plant Society, and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project to expedite the protection of 29 imperiled species from the Pacific Islands to Florida, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed the Tumbling Creek cavesnail as an endangered species on 8-14-02. It was listed on a temporary, emergency basis on 12-27-01.
Tumbling Creek Cave is a unique aquatic cave in Missouri which is home to eight endemic species and one of the few remaining maternity colonies of the endangered gray bat. Up to the late 1980s, it also supported a population of endangered Indiana bats. The cavesnail is spiraling toward extinction due to deteriorating water quality caused by overgrazing and pollution from livestock feedlots. Its decline may also be associated with the decline of the Indiana and gray bats as it likely feeds on insects living on bat guano. The Indiana bat is now extirpated from Tumbling Creek Cave and the gray bat population has declined from 50,000 to about 12,000.
The cavesnail has declined from 15,000 individuals in 1974 to about 40 today. Like hundreds of other imperiled species, it has been stuck on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service list of "candidates" for ESA protection since 1989 without any protection. Few species make it off the candidate list without the help of listing petitions or lawsuits.
For more information: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/activist/ESA/settlement.html
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SUIT FILED TO PROTECT RARE SANTA CRUZ AREA PLANT
The Center for Biological Diversity and the California Native Plant Society filed suit on 8-19-02 to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to take final action to list the Scotts Valley polygonum and designate its "critical habitat" under the Endangered Species Act(ESA).
On 11-09-00, the Service published a proposed rule in the Federal Register to list the Scotts Valley polygonum as an endangered species. On 2-15-01 the Service published a proposed rule to designate 310 acres as critical habitat for the species. By law, the Service has one year from the date of a proposed action to list a species or designate its critical habitat, however, it has yet to take final action to protect the Scotts Valley polygonum or designate its critical habitat, which is a violation of the ESA.
Scotts Valley polygonum (Polygonum hickmanii) is known to exist in just eleven small colonies at two sites in the northern Scotts Valley area of Santa Cruz County, California. The species occurs with other small native, annual herbs in patches known as "wildflower fields" within a more extensive grassland habitat. Almost extinct, the polygonum occupies less than an acre of habitat, and is threatened by urban development, disturbance from humans, pets, and bicycle traffic, soil compaction, the dumping of yard wastes, changes in hydrologic conditions, and herbicides and pesticides.
The Plaintiffs are represented in the legal action by Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity and attorney Ronni Flannery.
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FEDS PROPOSE CRITICAL HABITAT FOR IMPERILED TOPEKA SHINER
As a result of a legal settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, South Dakota Resources Coalition and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed on 8-21-02 to designate critical habitat for the endangered Topeka shiner over approximately 2,230 river miles in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota.
The Topeka shiner is a small fish which was once abundant throughout the Central Great Plains and western tallgrass prairies, and is now found in less than ten percent of its original range due to siltation of spawning habitat, water pollution, pesticide runoff, dams and diversions. Its population has dropped by 80%, especially in the past 25 years, and it is currently isolated in disconnected tributary streams in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
Many of the remaining populations of the species have declined sharply in numbers and have become geographically isolated, eliminating the possibility for genetic transfer between populations. This fish is especially important because it serves as an indicator of the general health of the aquatic ecosystems upon which fish, wildlife and people alike depend.
The case was argued by Neil Levine and Jay Tutchton of Earthjustice.
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BONNIE RAITT JOINS CENTER IN RESISTANCE TO AN ATTACK ON CA'S STRONGEST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Bonnie Raitt has joined the Center for Biological Diversity in defense of California's Fully Protected Species law. In a letter on 8-13-02 to Senator Sheila Kuehl and Governor Gray Davis, she expressed opposition to Senator Kuehl's bill SB482 that would repeal the Fully Protected Species law. The law is the most powerful protection afforded to wildlife in California. If a species is designated by the Legislature as a fully protected species, it cannot be killed, nor its habitat destroyed if this would ultimately lead to its death or destruction, under any circumstance. This is significantly greater protection than that afforded species that are merely listed as endangered or threatened under the California Endangered Species Act.
Passing this legislation would end nearly 50 years of inviolate protection for some of California's most beloved and imperiled species, such as the California Condor, Northern Elephant Seal, White Tailed Kite, Bighorn Sheep, Unarmored Threespine Stickleback (a very rare fish species), and dozens of other rare species. Kuehl's bill would eliminate this strong protection and lead to further sprawl, loss of open space and widespread habitat destruction.
For more information: http://actionnetwork.org/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=2002235 or contact Peter Galvin at (510) 841-0812 ext. 2, or pgalvin@biologicaldiversity.org
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ESA PROTECTION: CLINTON 151, BUSH 20
In its first 20 months in office, the Clinton Administration protected 151 species under the Endangered Species Act. The Bush Administration listed just 20 species in the same time span. Every single Endangered Species Act listing under the Bush Administration came in response to petitions or lawsuits by environmental groups. Petitions or lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation (with which it recently merged) were involved in every Bush Administration listing action.
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