%u201CExploitation of nature is taking its toll, with skyrocketing species extinction rates across the planet. Full enforcement of the Endangered Species Act can help turn humanity away from the foolish path of Captain Ahab,%u201D stated Rosmarino.
Conservation actions taken by WildEarth Guardians during %u201COcean Week%u201D are:
%u2022February 16: a petition requesting federal protection for the Warsaw Grouper. This Western Atlantic species is threatened by fishing, primarily in the Gulf of Mexico. When pulled up from the depths at which it dwells, this grouper suffers from %u201Cthe bends,%u201D hemorrhaging, and death. Human population growth, and consequent increases in fishing, is an underlying threat.
%u2022February 17: a petition requesting critical habitat designation for the Kemp%u2019s Ridley Sea Turtle, particularly in its nesting habitat on the Texas Gulf Coast. Threats on land include development and artificial lighting, which can deter nesting females and disorient hatchlings away from their crucial trek to the sea.
%u2022February 18: a lawsuit pressing the federal government to provide final recovery plans for the Sei, Fin, and Sperm Whales. All three of these whales were first federally protected as endangered in 1970, under a predecessor to the Endangered Species Act. But none of them have final recovery plans. Recovery plans are essential for spelling out the steps to pull endangered species back from the brink.
The BioBlitz began on December 28, the 36-year anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, in tribute to the law%u2019s role in protecting biodiversity and in celebration of 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity. For 36 consecutive working days, Guardians has been filing lawsuits or scientific petitions to obtain Endangered Species Act protection for imperiled species. By the close of the BioBlitz, Guardians will have taken actions for over 100 species in 36 days.
Each week of the BioBlitz illustrated a theme. Previous week themes were: Climate, E.O. Wilson, Prairie, On the Prowl, Sagebrush Sea, Borderlands, and Wildflowers.
%u201CThe Endangered Species Act has a nearly perfect record in preventing extinction: over 99 percent of the species protected under it are still with us today. The International Year of Biodiversity must remind the U.S. government that it has the power to safeguard biodiversity %u2013 now it just needs the will,%u201D stated Rosmarino.
WildEarth Guardians has been at the forefront of endangered species enforcement in the U.S. The group is a formal partner in the United Nation%u2019s Year of Biodiversity (see here), in which %u201CThe world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.%u201D
