A conservation group warned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of its intent to sue the agency because it hasn't designated “critical habitat” for the Pearl darter, a freshwater fish found only in Louisiana and Mississippi, which has been given “threatened” species status.
The Center for Biological Diversity sent the Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior a notice, in keeping with a 60-day requirement within the Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to the “Notice of Intent to Sue: Pearl Darter Critical Habitat.” The notice said the Center will pursue a lawsuit in federal court if the Wildlife Service, which protects endangered species, doesn’t correct the violation within 60 days.
The Center said that the Wildlife Service “violated the ESA by failing to designate critical habitat for the Pearl darter (Percina aurora), a freshwater fish that received ‘threatened’ status under the ESA on September 20, 2017.”
Curry
A critical habitat, in part, is a geographical area that has biological or physical qualities that help conserve a species, according to NOAA Fisheries.
At the time that the Pearl darter, which in the past lived in the Pearl and Pascagoula River basins in Mississippi and Louisiana, received threatened status, the Wildlife Service was required “to designate critical habitat concurrently with listing” or “until September 20, 2018.”
“Without protections for its critical habitat, the Pearl darter will continue to lose what little habitat remains throughout its range,” according to the notice of intent to sue.
The Pearl darter, a minnow, has been eradicated from the Pearl River basin, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. The fish now exist in “scattered locations in the Pascagoula basin,” facing pollution and effects from “in-stream gravel mining and dams,” which could move it towards extinction.
Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in comments for the Louisiana Record, "It’s actually in the state’s long-term economic best interest to protect wildlife and the environment because that also protects human health and well-being. When they (biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) work on the critical habitat designation, they will choose specific areas that have the features the fish needs to survive and areas that need to be restored so that the fish can recover.
“They will also estimate the economic costs of protecting that habitat. The fish is already protected from ‘take,’ meaning activities that would directly harm it or its habitat are already prohibited. Designating official ‘critical habitat’ is an additional layer of protection that would require any federally funded or permitted activity, such as federal highway construction or dams with federal funding, would have to consult with the Service to make sure those activities don’t jeopardize the fish.”
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