Saturday, November 29, 2008

An environmental group is suing the federal government, claiming fishery managers and biologists have not done enough to protect two species of Florida Keys coral listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday served the National Marine Fisheries Service with a 60-day notice stating that it plans to file a lawsuit for "illegally" excluding global warming and ocean acidification threats from a new rule protecting habitat for elkhorn and staghorn corals, the main reef builders of the Florida Keys, according to Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney for the center.

The new rule, published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, was required by a court settlement of a 2007 lawsuit also brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a national organization based in Arizona. The center argues the rule does not do enough to protect corals from coal-fired power plants and other sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The rule addresses coral habitat by saying they need hard substrate bottom, but the regulation does not mention the two species' need for clean, pollution-free water.

"Corals need clean water," Sakashita said. "They need water they can live in."

The group also contends the federal government watered down the regulations because the government initially proposed to designate 5,000 square miles of coral reef as habitat, but cut back on the size, Sakashita said. The federal government on Tuesday announced it will designate almost 3,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat for the threatened corals under the Endangered Species Act.

"The critical-habitat rule exposes the [President George] Bush agenda to ignore global warming, while rising temperatures are driving corals extinct," Sakashita said. "The rule shows the double standard of the Bush administration. On one hand, the law required the federal government to identify areas to protect for the threatened corals. On the other hand, the administration skirted the real threats to coral habitat, global warming and ocean acidification, by inserting language into the rule that carves out an exception for those threats. It is not only irrational, but it is illegal under the Endangered Species Act."

The National Marine Fisheries Service recently implemented a companion rule, which took effect Nov. 21, that addresses global warming and ocean acidification's effects on staghorn and elkhorn coral, agency biologist Jennifer Moore said. The rule requires the Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the other federal regulatory agencies to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service on coral issues before permitting power plants and other projects that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The rule also requires consultation if the plants, which produce runoff, are upstream from coral habitat. And it prohibits import and export, collection and other activities that result in the death or injury of the corals.

"Both rules will provide for the conservation of the species," Moore said.

The Keys' coral reef tract has experienced a 37 percent coral-cover loss since 1996, and an increase in coral bleaching and coral diseases from global warming, pollution and overuse. Oceanic acidification is also a problem.

Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the air are making the world's oceans more acidic, and in turn, affecting coral colonies and other shelled creatures that need calcium and carbonate.

Coral reefs often are referred to as the "rainforests of the sea" because of the vast number of species they support, and reefs provide raw materials for medicines. Coral reefs cover less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, but support an estimated 25 percent of all marine life, providing habitat for more than 4,000 species of fish, according to marine biologists.

"NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries is avoiding the tough challenges to restoring these corals -- water quality and sea temperatures -- while acknowledging that they need increased protection," Reef Relief Executive Director DeeVon Quirolo said of the rules.

"I find it to be very disappointing after all the hard evidence of action needed on the issues of water quality and temperature."

tohara@keysnews.com