The ESA: Here to Stay

September 11, 2018/ Emily Brauner / Conservation, Ocean Conservancy, Oceans, Species

Published by Ocean Conservancy

Over the course of the summer, close to 30,000 ocean advocates like you took action by telling your members of Congress to protect the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Trump administration is adding to the threat from Congress, ignoring the public and siding with industry—to try to dismantle the last line of defense for endangered species in need of our help.

Specifically, the Trump Administration is threatening to weaken endangered species protections by:

• Wrongly allowing economic considerations to factor into what should be purely science-based decisions;
• Weakening protections for threatened species;
• Limiting the information wildlife experts can consider and the scope of their reviews.

The ESA is vitally important for the survival of many species that live in the ocean. In fact, all six of the sea turtle species in the U.S. are protected under the ESA as either “endangered” or “threatened.”

Sea turtles spend their days swimming through the vast open ocean looking for tasty treats. Unfortunately, they encounter a lot of trash and other dangers along their journey. They can easily confuse plastic bags for one of their favorite foods, jellyfish. Plastics are a huge problem, especially for young turtles. For baby sea turtles, just half a gram—one one-thousandth of a pound—of ingested plastic can kill them.

Turtles are also at risk from other human activities and, thankfully, the ESA provides needed protections and practices are changing. Turtle excluder devices help turtles escape being caught in fishing nets, and modifications to hooks and nets help keep turtles safer. Coastal communities are implementing protections along certain areas of the beach during nesting seasons—to protect sea turtle nests and hatchlings as they make their way out to sea.

People are part of the problem—but, people are also part of the solution.

The ESA must remain strong because the ESA works. Ninety-nine percent of listed species have survived, and many have been set on a path to recovery. We can’t turn our backs on species in need of our help. Thankfully, your voice matter and makes a difference. Please take a few moments to let the Trump administration know that you oppose changes to the ESA and you support the critical protections it provides for our ocean’s most vulnerable animals. We have less than two weeks before the comment period closes, so please take action today.

Join us in speaking up for species on the brink of extinction by telling the Trump administration:

The ESA is Here to Stay!

The post The ESA: Here to Stay appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

Read the full article at: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2018/09/11/the-esa-here-to-stay/