Court: Federal govt must designate “critical habitat” for coral and other species

From a press release issued by the Center for Biological Diversity:

WASHINGTON— In a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity against the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal government guaranteed Friday it would end its delay in protecting habitat for several marine species at risk of extinction. The Endangered Species Act requires critical habitat designation for species as soon as they are listed under the Act, but in practice such protection rarely occurs without citizen litigation that forces the government to uphold the law.

The settlement of the lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., sets enforceable deadlines for all remaining overdue critical habitat rules for species under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency charged with implementing the Endangered Species Act for most marine species. The species covered by the settlement are the elkhorn coral, staghorn coral, smalltooth sawfish, and green sturgeon. The corals and sawfish occur in Florida, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, while the green sturgeon lives in California. . . .

Each of the species covered by the settlement is threatened by loss of habitat and should benefit greatly from critical habitat designation.

Elkhorn and staghorn corals, listed as threatened in May 2006, are the first, and to date only, species listed under the Endangered Species Act due to threats from global warming. Formerly the dominant reef-building corals in Florida and the Caribbean, over the past 30 years these corals have suffered an 80- to 98-percent decline throughout their range due to bleaching from abnormally warm water, disease, overfishing and other threats. . . .