Group seeks doubling of marine species protected by Endangered Species Act

A conservation group will ask the federal government Monday to list 81 additional marine species under the Endangered Species Act, seeking to protect sharks, corals and other sea life and begin correcting what it considers a bias toward safeguarding terrestrial creatures. Of the 1,475 U.S. species protected by the landmark 40-year-old law, only 94 live in the oceans. The conservation group WildEarth Guardians contends there is no scientific basis for that disparity. “It’s just an historic imbalance that needs to be righted,” said Bethany Cotton, wildlife program director for the organization, which is based in Santa Fe, N.M. With most efforts to protect species started by groups and individuals, the overwhelming majority of species listed have been the ones people can see — land- and river-based wildlife, predominantly in the West, she said. Boris Worm, a professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, noted that global extinction of marine species has been historically rare and that no fish species has been completely eliminated from the waters that cover 71 percent of the globe. (A number of species, including some sturgeon, bluefin tuna and white marlin, have become extinct in certain regions, which often signals the onset of a more widespread problem, he said.)...more