Can three conservation groups win protection for sea turtles with a lawsuit?

Three conservation groups are joining forces in the fight for endangered wildlife with the filing of a new lawsuit against the U.S. government.

Groups Oceana, The Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network have filed a suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service today over violations of the Endangered Species Act – citing failure to meet the 12-month legal deadline for responding to three separate petitions focusing on two sea turtle species in U.S. waters off the East and West coasts.

“This is a classic example of the Fisheries Service dragging its feet,” said David Allison, senior campaign director at Oceana. “Sea turtles can’t continue to wait for these essential protections. More sea turtles will be caught and killed with each passing day, pushing them closer to extinction.”

Documentation of the actual lawsuit can be viewed here.

Seeking increased protection for Loggerheads

The suit’s main focus is on populations of loggerhead turtles in both Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Loggerheads, a species that is rapidly dwindling in the North Pacific, could be extinct by the mid-21st century if proper proptections are not put in place. Over the last decade, their numbers have declined by 80%.

The petitioning groups are calling for the designation of the North Pacific and western North Atlantic loggerheads as distinct population segments and to raise their status from threatened to endangered, as well as increased protection in the loggerheads’ key nesting beaches and marine habitats off both coasts.

“Loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles have roamed the oceans for thousands of years, but they might not make it into the next century if we don’t do more to protect them right now,” said Miyoko Sakashita, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Delaying protective actions while threats like being captured and killed by indiscriminate commercial fishing gear, nesting beach destruction, and climate change continue to accelerate makes it that much harder to pull the species back from the brink.”

Pacific Leatherback habitats under fire

The suit also calls for the protection of migratory and foraging habitats for leatherback sea turtles in North Pacific, specifically off the coast of California and Oregon. These regions are migration zones for critically endangered leatherback sea turtles that migrate more than 6,000 miles from nesting beaches in Indonesia.

“We’ll see the end of sea turtles in our lifetimes if we don’t stop them from drowning on fishing hooks and in nets,” said Teri Shore, program director at the Turtle Island Restoration Network. “The U.S. must enforce its own laws.”

The groups are also calling for stronger, newer protections, including comprehensive legislation that would protect U.S. sea turtles in ocean waters as well as on land.