Endangered species

15 January 2008 -- Australia's foreign minister says Japan has agreed to free two anti-whaling activists being held aboard a Japanese whaling vessel in Antarctic waters.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told Australia's national radio early Wednesday that Japan has not yet handed the men back to their own ship.

Smith added that Australian police are investigating whether there had been any unlawful activity.    » read more »

Washington, D.C. (Jan. 11, 2008) – The World Bank and Conservation International (CI) today signed an agreement for $20 million in new funds, provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to protect some of the world’s most unique and threatened areas, including island ecosystems and temperate forests.

These biodiversity hotspots are home to more than half of all terrestrial plants and animals, as well as more than 1.8 billion people who are highly dependent on healthy lands for their livelihoods and well-being.    » read more »

Environmental Groups will Return to Court to Enforce Deadline

WASHINGTON (January 7, 2008) – In response to the Bush administration’s announcement that it will not meet Wednesday’s deadline to issue a final Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing determination for the polar bear due to global warming, environmental groups announced their intent to go back to court to enforce the deadline.    » read more »

Wildlife experts, government officials meet at India’s Ranthambore Park

16 November 2007 -- Washington -- Wildlife experts and government officials from India and the United States met at India’s famed Ranthambore tiger reserve in early November to discuss ways to counter the factors driving one of the world’s most iconic animals toward extinction.    » read more »

Court Upholds Injunction to Protect Whales, Dolphins and other Marine Life

LOS ANGELES (November 13, 2007) – A federal appeals court today ordered the U.S. Navy not to use a dangerous form of high-intensity sonar in its future training exercises planned for the rich biological waters off Southern California until serious questions over likely harm to marine mammals can be resolved. High-intensity mid-frequency (MFA) sonar has killed marine mammals in numerous incidents around the world. The waters off Southern California have high concentrations of whales and dolphins.    » read more »

Scientists point to climate change as the main threat to polar bears and their habitat

Washington, D.C. (November 14, 2007) – As a result of dramatic sea ice retreat this summer and the smallest Arctic sea ice coverage ever recorded, the world’s wild polar bear populations are at risk of extinction if Arctic sea ice continues to shrink at current rates.    » read more »

Record-Breaking 27 Metric Tonnes of Meat Confiscated

Oct. 11, 2007 -- Environment Canada's Wildlife Enforcement Division along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service officers have dismantled a major smuggling organization of queen conch meat, an internationally protected endangered species.    » read more »

"Legislation represents future of conservation in America"

September 21, 2007 -- Statement by John Kostyack, director of Wildlife Conservation Campaigns at the National Wildlife Federation, regarding the successful committee passage of S. 700, which creates new tax incentives to encourage private landowners to protect endangered species on their lands:    » read more »

JUNEAU — Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend the public comment period on new studies that may affect the listing of polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

In a letter sent today to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Governor Palin is requesting a minimum of 60 days, instead of the slated 15-day period.

The time is needed to carefully review the data from nine new U.S. Geological Survey studies on the matter. Much of the 40 megabytes of data and analysis is new.    » read more »

08/14/2007 -- WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry announced today that he has asked President Bush to finalize the so-called “ship strike rule,” which would implement speed restrictions to protect right whales from collisions with ships and other ocean-going vessels. As reported today in the Washington Post, although the draft rule has been complete for six months, it remains stalled at the Office of Management and Budget in response to pressure from the international shipping industry.    » read more »

Another S.F. Bay-Delta Fish Population Plummets to Record Low Numbers

San Francisco –The Bay Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Natural Resources Defense Council today petitioned for state and federal endangered species protection for the longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), a fish that has dropped to record low numbers in the San Francisco Bay-Delta and is nearing extinction in other northern California estuaries. The groups simultaneously asked the U. S.    » read more »

August 7, 2007, Juneau, Alaska - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has told the federal government that the state is extremely concerned about a proposal to list Cook Inlet beluga whales as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act, and urged the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) not to list the species.    » read more »

July 6, 2007 -- SANTA FE – New Mexico Governor Richardson seeks to change key protocols for the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program following a recent wolf kill incident in southwestern New Mexico.

“I am deeply concerned about the recent escalation in wolf removals and incidents surrounding yesterday’s lethal removal of a female wolf,” said Governor Bill Richardson.    » read more »

“License to Kill” Would Reverse Wildlife Recovery in Northern Rockies, Says NRDC

LIVINGSTON, Mont. (July 6, 2007) – Twelve years after reintroducing wolves in the wild in the Northern Rockies, the federal government has today announced a plan to allow most of the animals to be exterminated. The government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list, a move that conservation groups oppose, but the new plan allows the slaughter to begin even before the wolves are formally delisted, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).    » read more »

July 6, 2007 -- SANTA FE – New Mexico Governor Richardson seeks to change key protocols for the Mexican Gray Wolf Recovery Program following a recent wolf kill incident in southwestern New Mexico.

“I am deeply concerned about the recent escalation in wolf removals and incidents surrounding yesterday’s lethal removal of a female wolf,” said Governor Bill Richardson. “State Police are investigating the incident and are collecting the facts as this investigation takes its course.”    » read more »