January, 08 2013, 03:03pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
East Coast: Jaclyn Lopez, (727) 490-9190, jlopez@biologicaldiversity.org
West Coast: Catherine Kilduff, (415) 436-9682 ext. 312, ckilduff@biologicaldiversity.org
Oceana:
East Coast: Amelia Vorpahl, Oceana, (202) 467-1968, avorpahl@oceana.org
West Coast: Ben Enticknap, Oceana, (503) 235-0278, benticknap@oceana.org
Turtle Island Restoration Network: Teri Shore, (707) 934-7081, tshore@tirn.net
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtle Habitat
WASHINGTON
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit today against the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the agencies' failure to protect critical habitat areas for threatened and endangered loggerhead sea turtles on their nesting beaches and in Atlantic and Pacific waters, where they face threats from fisheries, climate change and coastal development.
While the number of loggerhead sea turtles nesting along Florida beaches has grown in recent years, these numbers have varied significantly over the past two decades, with the lowest recorded number occurring in 2007. Florida beaches host the largest nesting population of loggerheads in the United States, where increasing threats from coastal development and beach armoring can prevent successful nesting.
North Pacific loggerheads, which nest in Japan and cross the Pacific to feed along the coasts of Southern California and Mexico, have declined by at least 80 percent over the past decade and were recently reclassified from threatened to endangered. It has been estimated that more than 1,000 loggerheads die each year as a result of gillnet fishing in Mexico, with more than 400 washing ashore dead last summer.
"The impacts of Hurricane Sandy and Tropical Storm Debbie have made clear that healthy coastal beaches are important -- both for humans and for nesting sea turtles. Critical habitat will help ensure thoughtful coastal development in the face of sea-level rise and will help leave a legacy of stable shores for future generations of people and turtles," said Jaclyn Lopez, a Florida attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
"The Endangered Species Act is a safety net for imperiled species like loggerhead sea turtles, but the federal government has failed in its duty to protect the areas these sea turtles call home," said Beth Lowell, campaign director at Oceana. "The longer the government delays in designating and protecting critical habitat, the more turtles will continue be caught in fishing nets and have their nesting beaches destroyed. Only by protecting the regions vital to their survival can these populations recover."
"Loggerheads on both coasts need robust protections from fisheries, oil spills and climate change to reverse their trajectory toward extinction," said Teri Shore, program director at Turtle Island Restoration Network. "While awaiting the protections they deserve, loggerhead sea turtles continue to die, entangled in nets or hooked on longlines for swordfish and tuna."
The main threats to loggerhead sea turtle recovery are from serious injury or death from entanglement in fishing gear, destruction of foraging grounds and loss of nesting habitat. Scientists estimate sea levels will rise by at least three to six feet by the end of the century, with East Coast sea levels rising three to four times faster than the global average, flooding important sea turtle habitats on vulnerable Florida beaches. In addition, beach armoring and coastal development prevent natural beach migration of sea turtles to adapt to rising seas.
Critical habitat protection would help safeguard marine and terrestrial areas essential for migrating, feeding and nesting. The designation would ensure that federally permitted activities do not continue to drive these species to the brink of extinction by destroying these important areas. Evidence shows that endangered or threatened species that have protected critical habitat are twice as likely to show signs of recovery as those without it.
On Sept. 22, 2011, loggerhead sea turtles worldwide were protected as nine separate populations under the Endangered Species Act, including endangered North Pacific loggerheads and threatened Northwest Atlantic loggerheads. This triggered a requirement to designate critical habitat areas concurrently with the listing, with a deadline the government has failed to meet; today's lawsuit, brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana and Turtle Island Restoration Network, targets that failure.
Click here for more information about loggerhead populations and to download the petitions.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252LATEST NEWS
'Starvation Caucus': US Lawmakers Push Spending Bill That Bars Funding for UNRWA
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders slammed members of Congress who are "happy to cut funding to UNRWA and make it harder to get aid to Palestinians in the midst of this crisis."
Mar 21, 2024
A $1.2 trillion government spending package that Congress is expected to pass by this weekend would prohibit U.S. funding for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees for at least a year as Gazans living under Israeli siege face increasingly catastrophic hunger.
Buried at the end of 1,012 pages of legislative text unveiled early Thursday is a section that says funds appropriated under the bipartisan bill "may not be used for a contribution, grant, or other payment" to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Gazans rely on for food and shelter. The U.S. is historically the largest donor to UNRWA.
The proposed freeze would last through March 2025. Many Republican lawmakers are calling for a permanent end to U.S. funding for the agency, which has faced shortfalls since the Biden administration and other Western governments paused donations in late January following Israel's unsubstantiated claims that UNRWA staffers took part in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel.
Ahead of the release of legislative text, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "touted" the UNRWA freeze to members, The Associated Pressreported Wednesday—days after a report warned that Gaza's entire population is facing "high levels of acute food insecurity" and "famine is imminent" in the northern part of the enclave.
Congressional progressives, meanwhile, have urged the Biden administration to immediately restore UNRWA funding.
In a floor speech on Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) castigated lawmakers and others backing UNRWA cuts, calling them members of a "starvation caucus."
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"Sadly, tragically, many members of Congress seem to be happy to be part of this starvation caucus, happy to cut funding to UNRWA and make it harder to get aid to Palestinians in the midst of this crisis," Sanders added.
Bernie Sanders calls members of Congress voting to cut funding for UNRWA, the U.N. agency accused of aiding Hamas, the “Starvation Caucus.” pic.twitter.com/wOhuJ2DtUB
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) March 21, 2024
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For months, the Israeli government has deliberately obstructed ground-based aid deliveries to Gaza, subjecting shipments to arbitrary and complicated inspection processes and rejecting entire vehicles over items such as scissors in child medical kits.
Israel's blockade has resulted in the rapid spread of malnutrition across the Gaza Strip. Dozens of people, including children, have starved to death in recent weeks.
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Defenders of Social Security and Medicare on Wednesday swiftly criticized the biggest caucus of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for putting out a budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 that takes aim at the crucial programs.
The 180-page "Fiscal Sanity to Save America" plan from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) follows the release of proposals from Democratic President Joe Biden and U.S. House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas)—who is leading the fight to create a fiscal commission for the programs that critics call a "death panel" designed to force through cuts.
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"Everyone who cares about the future of these vital earned benefits should vote accordingly in November."
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Mar 20, 2024
As the Biden administration wrestles with whether to certify that Israel is complying with a presidential directive requiring human rights assurances from governments receiving American weapons, Palestine defenders on Wednesday renewed calls for a suspension of U.S. arms sales to Israel's genocidal government and military.
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"America should follow in Canada's steps and stop weapons sales now."
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The Canadian Parliament on Monday approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut off arms exports to Israel. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly subsequently said that the government would cease future weapons sales to the country.
Other countries including Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium have suspended or restricted weapons sales to Israel, whose military forces have killed or wounded more than 113,000 Palestinians since the October 7 attacks while forcibly displacing around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people and fueling famine and disease by besieging the embattled strip. Most of those killed have been women and children.
On January 26, the
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