Three environmental organizations have announced a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). They accuse the agency of failing to finish on time its work on protecting manatee habitat in Florida and Puerto Rico.
The lawsuit is to be filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Save the Manatee Club and Defenders of Wildlife. For now, they have sent the 60-day notice of intent to sue required by law. The document was addressed to, among others, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and FWS Director Brian Nesvik.
The organizations cite Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under it, the service should finalize a proposal to revise or designate critical habitat within one year of its publication. The proposal concerning the Florida manatee and the Caribbean (Antillean) manatee was published two years ago, so the deadline has been missed by a year.
The FWS proposal calls for nearly 1 million acres of new critical habitat in Florida and almost 80,000 acres in Puerto Rico. According to the organizations, the current habitat designation for the Florida manatee dates to 1976. The Caribbean manatee has no designated critical habitat yet.
Currently, the West Indian manatee is classified as threatened throughout its range. FWS has proposed keeping that status for the Florida manatee, while it wants to list the Caribbean manatee as endangered again.
Elizabeth Neville of the Save the Manatee Club said the greatest long-term threat to manatees is the loss and degradation of habitat, especially warm-water refuges and seagrass meadows. If the service does not finalize the habitat designations within 60 days, the organizations will be able to take the case to federal court.
Source: WLRN
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Source: Słoneczne Radio
