Ocean Sentry
A federal judge yesterday approved a settlement that requires the federal government to finalize protections for seven penguin species under the Endangered Species Act. The court-ordered settlement results from a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) challenging the Obama administration’s failure to finalize its determination that these penguins warrant Endangered Species Act protection due to threats from climate change and commercial fisheries.
“Penguins are poster children for the devastating effects of climate change,” said Catherine Kilduff, a Center attorney. “The Endangered Species Act provides a springboard for protecting penguins and our planet.”
In 2006, the Center filed a petition to list 12 penguin species under the Act. In December 2008, the Interior Department proposed listing seven of those penguins as threatened or endangered – African, Humboldt, yellow-eyed, white-flippered, Fiordland crested, erect-crested, and a population of the southern rockhopper penguins – while denying listing to emperor and northern rockhopper penguins despite scientific evidence that they are also threatened by climate change and commercial fisheries…..
