Ocean Sentry
Today the Center for Biological Diversity notified the Fish and Wildlife Service of its intent to file suit against the agency for illegally delaying protection of the ashy storm petrel under the Endangered Species Act. The Service failed to make a 12-month finding on whether the ashy storm petrel, a rare California seabird imperiled by development and global warming, should be listed under the Endangered Species Act as threatened or endangered. This decision was due by the agency on October 16, 2008.
“The declines in its numbers and breeding success are indicative of the increasing stress to the coastal ocean from global warming, pollution, and development.”
The ashy storm petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) is a small, smoke-gray seabird that lives almost exclusively on the offshore islands and waters of California near San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. These waters are polluted and stressed by development, including offshore energy terminals, shipping traffic, commercial fishing, and oil spills, as well as by global warming. Faced with these multiple threats, the seabird has experienced sharp population declines in recent decades.
(From biologicaldiversity.org – San Francisco)
