As part of a national campaign to rally support for the Endangered Species Act, the Center for Biological Diversity has committed to getting 10,000 people to sign a pledge affirming the Act’s importance. The Endangered Species Act is our nation’s strongest environmental law. It has saved over a thousand species from extinction, including bears, butterflies, whales, minnows, palm trees and lilies. Even the unarmored three-spine stickleback.

On 9-30-04, Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the black-footed albatross as an endangered species. The seabird nests almost exclusively in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It was decimated in the early 20th century by plume hunters and is currently threatened by the industrial longline fishing industry for swordfish and tuna. The industry sets nearly 10 billion baited hooks each year, killing over 300,000 seabirds of various species. The Bush administration's recent reopening of the Hawaii-based longline fishery for swordfish will likely result in the drowning deaths of several thousand black-footed albatross each year.

Globally, 19 of the 21 albatross species are threatened with extinction. In each case, a primary threat is longline fishing. About 60,000 nesting pairs of black-footed albatrosses survive today. As many as 14,000 are estimated to be killed by longline fishing each year.

The black-footed albatross has a wingspan of over six feet and spends much of its life on the wing, scooping flying fish eggs, squid and fish from the ocean surface while foraging along the western coast of the United States. It is long-lived with a life history similar to humans. They mate for life, lay only one egg per year, and if one of the pair dies, it can take three or more years before the living partner finds another mate and begins to reproduce again. These life history traits make them highly susceptible to extinction when animals of reproductive age are killed.

Immediate Endangered Species Act protection looks grim. The Bush administration has placed fewer species on the endangered species list than any presidency in history, is the only administration to have never listed a species on its own, and has removed more species from the endangered list than any other administration.

On 9-24-04, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which should lead to the development of a recovery plan and critical habitat for the jaguar. The jaguar was listed as an endangered species in 1997 due to a Center lawsuit, but the agency has refused to prepare a federal recovery plan or identify critical habitat areas. Settling a lawsuit filed in July 2003, the agreement requires the agency to issue a new critical habitat decision by July 3, 2006 at which time adequacy of habitat protection and recovery planning will be reanalyzed.

Reports by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service show that species with critical habitat and recovery plans recover much faster than species without. Nonetheless, the Bush administration has dramatically reduced the number of recovery plans being developed and has refused to designate a single critical habitat except under court order.

The Arizona Department of Game and Fish developed a state-wide map indicating habitat that may be suitable for jaguar re-occupation. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish has done the same, but the interagency Jaguar Conservation Team rejected New Mexico's map as inadequate, indicating that additional areas qualify as habitat. The New Mexico map will be redone.

Although jaguars are typically thought of as rainforest creatures, historically they also lived in the United States and have been recorded in the southern tier of states from California through Louisiana. Like wolves, jaguars were exterminated by the federal government and by ranchers. A female jaguar with kittens was killed in the early 20th century as far north as the Grand Canyon, and others were killed in northern New Mexico and in central Texas during the 1930s and 1940s. The last female jaguar known in the United States was killed in 1963 in southeastern Arizona in the region where Mexican gray wolves now roam. Over the past few years, jaguars have been photographed in Arizona and New Mexico close to the border with Mexico. Additional records considered valid by the Jaguar Conservation Team indicate jaguars in the Gila National Forest during the 1990s.

Center for Biological Diversity | PO Box 710 Tucson, AZ 85702 | 520-623-5252 | [email protected]

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