Suit seeks to protect
Star-Bulletin staff
leatherback turtlesA marine environmental protection group urged a U.S. District Court judge to take immediate action to stop the taking of endangered Pacific leatherback turtles by longline fishermen.
Unless drastic measures are taken, the turtles will be extinct in the next few years, the Center for Marine Conservation said yesterday. Annually, about 244 leatherback turtles are taken by Hawaii-based longline fisheries, the primary cause of the decline, the suit alleges.
"Hundreds of leatherbacks are hooked in this fishery every year and many eventually die after they are released," Dr. Pamela Plotkin, senior conservation scientist said. "Each and every Pacific leather- back taken is a potentially serious loss to the population because there are so few adult leather-backs remaining."
Leatherbacks are classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Their populations have declined in the last decade, with some nesting populations in the west Pacific "biologic ally extinct." Similar collapses are occurring in the east Pacific, the group said.
Last February, the Center for Marine Conservation and Sea Turtle Restoration Project of Turtle Island Restoration Network filed suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service for allegedly violating the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing the fishery to operate without adequate protection for the sea turtles.
The court is being asked to decide what Hawaii fisheries must do to reduce the number of turtles being taken in the next two years while an environmental impact statement is being prepared.
