NOAA considering petition to review critical habitat for elkhorn and staghorn coral.
2008 NOAA
Press Release: DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / 50 CFR Part 226 / Listing Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Designating Critical Habitat; 90–day Finding for a Petition to Revise Designated Critical Habitat for Elkhorn and Staghorn Corals ACTION: Notice of petition finding; request for information and comments.
Magnitude of Nutrient Over-Enrichment in Florida Water quality degradation due to nutrient over-enrichment is a significant
environmental issue in Florida. Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection has acknowledged and documented the magnitude of over-enrichment. According to Florida’s 2008 Integrated Report,6 approximately 1,000 miles of rivers and streams, 350,000 acres of lakes, and 900 square miles of estuaries are impaired for nutrients in the State. To put this into context, these values represent approximately 16% of the assessed river and stream miles, 36% of the assessed lake acres, and 25% of the assessed square miles of estuaries that Florida has listed as impaired under the IWR. The actual number of miles and acres of waters impaired for nutrients is likely higher, as many waters currently classified as “unassessed” may also be impaired.
This conclusion is based upon a range of available information, including the vastmamounts of monitoring data that exist on nutrient-related parameters in Florida waters. With almost 800,000 nutrient-related data points in STORET (including nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, and turbidity), Florida has substantially more data points than any other State or Territory to clearly characterize the magnitude of its nutrient challenges.
After watching this video titled ‘Canary in a coal mine’ which was created by Oceanographers and Ocean Scientists it is easy to understand that Coral Reef Eco-systems are the Kidneys of the Oceans and consequentially the entire planet.
Wow, and now here are some statistics for you.
>70% of the Earth is Ocean while less than 1/4 of 1% of the Oceans host coral reef colonies.
>80% of the global coral reefs are in a stressed out stage due to overfishing, pollution, global climate change, carbon, acidification, bleaching, invasive species, and disease.
<2% of the Earth is rainforests, it now should be easy to see which habitat sequests the most carbon and produces the most oxygen with photosynthesis by phytoplankton.
Please sign our Enforce the Federal Clean Water Act petition online.
Endangered Species Act is under attack in Washington.
Time is of the essence.
September 15 is the last day to comment on this proposal.
What you can do.
What I did that was so easy, thanks to Ocean Conservancy, I sent e-mails to my elected officials on their format, and got results.
I received letters from all of the Congressmen and Senators applauding my efforts and acknowledging my e-mail. This is kind of like a vote; you will get heard and noted on this very important issue.
I encourage you to open the link and send e-mail to your State elected officials. Ocean Conservancy Link
Also please sign the petition sponsored by Defenders of Wildlife at the petition site… Petition Site Link
Use the Audubon form to send a message to Fish and Wildlife. Audubon Link
Send a message to Washington today and protect the Endangered Species Act.
