*Pulled from Yahoo news and written by RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI

Many endangered turtles dying on Texas Gulf Coast

HIGH ISLAND, Texas – Flies buzz everywhere and the stench is overwhelming as biologist Lyndsey Howell stops to analyze the remains of yet another endangered sea turtle washed up from the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s been on the beach for a while,” Howell says, flipping over the decomposing, dried-out shell.

More than 30 dead turtles have been found stranded on Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula south of Houston this month — an unusually high number that has puzzled researchers, in part because most are so decomposed that there are few clues left about why they died.

The number of strandings on these shores is double what scientists and volunteers normally see as the turtles begin nesting in April, says Howell, who patrols the beaches as part of her job with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 35 turtles found, all but three were dead. Thirty-three were Kemp’s ridleys, an endangered species researchers have spent decades trying to rehabilitate.

Many of the turtles appear to have propeller wounds from boats or have become entangled in fishing nets or lines, Howell says. Others have parasites or are emaciated.

The increase in deaths comes as the turtles swim closer to shore to nest and shrimping season gets into full swing along the upper Texas coast, said Roger Zimmerman, lab director of the NOAA marine fishery laboratory in Galveston.

“Historically, they increase about this time of year. … This is a few more than we would normally expect,” Zimmerman said. “We are concerned and we’ll keep an eye on it.”

Researchers are also watching the massive oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. If the oil were to begin moving in the direction of the Texas Gulf — which isn’t predicted at the moment — many Kemp’s ridleys swimming in to nest would be right in its path. In 1979, after an oil spill off the coast of Mexico, Kemp’s ridleys were airlifted to cleaner waters.

Shrimping has long been blamed for sea turtle deaths. Shrimpers are required to install grid-like devices in their nets that are designed to allow turtles to escape. Shrimpers caught without the turtle excluder devices — or TEDs — may be fined thousands of dollars and have their catch seized by federal regulators.

Still, some are reluctant to invest $800 on the TEDs or are angry over the extra work they create aboard the shrimp boats, so they gamble they won’t be caught.

“When there is more shrimp, there are more turtle strandings,” Zimmerman said. “That correlation has been well-documented.”

Educating fishermen, the public and shrimpers about preserving Kemp’s ridleys is part of a new federal recovery plan expected to be approved in the coming months. The goal is to upgrade the Kemp’s ridleys from endangered to threatened within six years — but that depends on having 10,000 nesting females per season. Currently, there are about 6,000.

Nesting season begins in mid-April and lasts into July. Most Kemp’s ridleys nest on a beach in Mexico or at Padre Island in south Texas. But increasing numbers have been seeking out the shores of Galveston and Bolivar.

Howell and Zimmerman hope the deaths indicate the population has increased and even more turtles are heading toward the Texas Gulf Coast to nest.

But there’s no knowing for certain.

“This is a needle-in-a-haystack thing,” said Andre Landry, a marine biology professor at Texas A&M University in Galveston. “It’s a difficult situation, pinpointing a cause of death in an animal that may be compromised by decomposition.”

Pulled from Yahoo news and written by Mary Pemberton

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Four years after being placed on the Endangered Species List, the dwindling sea otters of southwest Alaska on Wednesday were given an important recovery tool.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated nearly 5,900 square miles as critical habitat for sea otters in the Aleutian Islands, Bering Sea and Alaska Peninsula. The designated area includes all nearshore waters.

“Critical habitat has a proven record of aiding the recovery of endangered species,” said Rebecca Noblin, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed two lawsuits and engaged in years of litigation to get the animals protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The otters in southwest Alaska were listed as threatened in 2005.

“This has been a long time coming,” she said.

Critical habitat gives the sea otters — the smallest of marine mammals — a “fighting chance of recovery,” she said.

Nearshore areas were chosen because most of the creatures that sea otters eat — sea urchins, crabs, octopuses and some bottom fish — are found in shallow waters. Areas close to shore also provide the best protection from marine predators, especially killer whales, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Federal law requires that critical habitat be designated at the time of listing. But when that didn’t happen under the Bush administration, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a federal lawsuit in 2006. The following year an agreement was reached that critical habitat would be designated by this October.

Fish and Wildlife said it needed time to conduct an economic impact analysis on what the designation could mean to southwest Alaska. The agency found that designation would not have a large impact and should not result in any commercial fishing closures.

About 90 percent of the world’s sea otters are in Alaska waters. There were more than 100,000 sea otters in southwest Alaska waters in the 1970s but there are fewer than 40,000 now. Some areas have seen numbers plummet 90 percent.

The reason for the decline is not known but one credible theory is that killer whales are preying on more sea otters, perhaps because other larger marine mammals such as sea lions are also in decline.

Noblin said there isn’t much that can be done about killer whales but there are other stressors than can be addressed such as overfishing, the potential for oil development in Bristol Bay and climate change in the Bering Sea.

Critical habitat gives the animals an extra layer of scrutiny when entities are applying for federal permits in the designated area. However, it does not mean that development will stop, Noblin said.

“It just means the developer has to go through an additional process to determine how what they are doing will impact sea otters,” she said.

**pulled from Yahoo news, written by SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – American wildlife officials and ranchers are raising questions over a plan to release a rare North American gray wolf to its historic range in northern Mexico: Will it stay south of the border and what can be done if it threatens livestock?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week it learned of the plan to release captive-bred Mexican gray wolves during a meeting with Mexican officials.

A male, female and two yearlings could be released in Sonora state, bordering Arizona and New Mexico, as early as October. Another release is planned for December and more could happen next year as part of an effort by both countries to return the wolves to the wild.

“I think we kind of assumed it would happen eventually but we didn’t realize it was going to happen this quickly,” said Charna Lefton, regional spokeswoman with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque.

The Mexican agency that oversees natural resources and the environment, known as SEMARNAT, did not immediately respond to telephone and email requests for comment.

While wildlife officials and conservationists generally support the move, Lefton says “everyone is asking the same questions.”

What if the wolves cross into the United States? Will they be protected under the federal Endangered Species Act? Or will they have the same “nonessential, experimental” designation as wolves released as part of a reintroduction effort in New Mexico and Arizona?

The Fish and Wildlife Service has posed those questions to the agency’s attorneys and are hoping for answers in coming weeks. The agency also plans another meeting with Mexican officials.

The Mexican wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf, was exterminated in the wild in the Southwest by the 1930s after a campaign by the federal government to control the predator.

A handful of wolves were captured in Mexico in the late 1970s to save the animal from extinction. In 1998, the U.S. government began reintroducing wolves along the Arizona-New Mexico line in a 4 million-acre territory. Biologists had hoped to have at least 100 wolves by now, but recent surveys show about half that. It’s unclear how many wolves are in Mexico’s Sonora state.

The wolves in Arizona and New Mexico do not have full protection under the Endangered Species Act because they are designated as “experimental,” giving game officials greater flexibility to manage them and even allows permanent removal — by capturing or killing — after three confirmed livestock kills in a year.

Conservationists contend any wolves found outside the reintroduction area in the two states would be protected under the Endangered Species Act unless the Fish and Wildlife seeks a contrary rule.

Wolves returning to the wild in Mexico only complicates a troubled effort in the United States, especially if the animals cross the border, said Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association.

“You’ve got the potential of wolves coming down on you from the north that have one endangered status, and you’ve got wolves coming from the south that may have a different status,” she said. “How are you supposed to tell the difference?”

Conservationists are encouraged by Mexico’s plans, saying more wolves in the wild will help ensure species survival. If the U.S. and Mexico populations mingle, that would bolster the animal’s limited genetic pool.