NGOs sue NMFS to protect pinto abalone

Two conservation groups notified the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) of their intent to file a lawsuit, claiming the agency has delayed Endangered Species Act protections for pinto abalone.

The National Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity say the six-inch sea snail was once common in rocky, intertidal coasts from Alaska to Baja California, but that populations have plummeted from 80 percent to as much as 99 percent due to overfishing, ocean warming and ocean acidification.

“Overfishing nearly wiped out pinto abalone, and a warming and acidifying ocean now threatens to finish them off,” said Kiersten Lippmann, a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The best way to prevent extinction is immediate protection under the Endangered Species Act.”

On 27 June 2013, NRDC submitted a petition to protect the abalone under the Endangered Species Act, and on 1 August 2013, the Center submitted a similar petition. By law the agency had 12 months to determine whether it would provide Endangered Species Act protection for the abalone. That deadline has now passed.

“The pinto abalone needs strong and immediate protection. This will help ensure they are recovered and sufficiently robust, so that they have the best chances of surviving ocean acidification and climate change,” said Brad Sewell, a senior attorney at NRDC.

Ocean acidification makes coastal waters progressively more acidic, which stunts shell growth, decreases larval abalones’ survival rates and has other adverse effects on reproduction, development and behavior. The increasingly acidic water increases the risk of fatal shell deformities and softens the shells of young abalones, leaving them more vulnerable to predators.

Abalone populations crashed in the 1980s and 1990s and although most fisheries are now closed, poachers continue to illegally hunt abalone due to their high value in the Asian market.

“The pinto abalone historically played an important role in the Pacific kelp ecosystem, including as grazers of algal growth and as a food source for sea otters, octopuses, crabs and other marine animals,” said Sewell. “The loss of the species will have broader ecological consequences, in addition to being a tragedy in its own right.”



The Center and NRDC have 60 days after the filing of their intent to sue before they are able to bring suit against the National Marine Fisheries Service in federal court.

Subscribe

Want seafood news sent to your inbox?

You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time. Diversified Communications | 121 Free Street, Portland, ME 04101 | +1 207-842-5500
None