WASHINGTON — July 19, 2013 — In response to a lawsuit jointly filed in January by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), Oceana, and the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service have proposed critical habitat designations for one distinct population segment (DPS) of loggerhead sea turtles, according to a recent NMFS proposed rule.
Loggerhead sea turtles were listed as a threatened species worldwide in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but no critical habitat was designated at that time. The USFWS and the NMFS have agreed to work together through a "joint memorandum of understanding" to protect the loggerheads because the turtles use multiple habitats that range from "terrestrial, inshore/estuarine, nearshore" to the open ocean marine environment, the action noted.
The three conservation groups petitioned the "marine" and "terrestrial" agencies in 2007 to reclassify the turtles as endangered and designate critical habitat. This prompted a formal review by scientific experts under the requirements of the ESA, the NOAA said in its press release.
In 2011, the agencies jointly published a final rule that revised the turtle's listing from a single worldwide threatened species to nine DPSs, four of which maintain the threatened listing, with the other five now listed as endangered. Only two of the DPSs qualify for critical habitat designation because they are the only ones within U.S. jurisdiction. One is in the northwest Atlantic and the other is in the north Pacific, according to the action.
The NMFS action only proposed critical habitat for the "threatened" Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico DPS, maintaining that no critical habitat was identified within the jurisdiction of the U.S. for the "endangered" North Pacific Ocean DPS. The areas "around Hawaii and along the U.S. west coast represent a very small percentage of suitable loggerhead habitat and do not meet the definition of critical habitat," the agency said.
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