The sea otters need to be designated as critical habitat immediately in a bid to save the species from extinction! In southwest Alaska, it is found to have already decreased alarmingly, a conservation group claims.
The Arizona-based conservation group, Center for Biological Diversity — to compel the government to designate critical habitat — has filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday.
To help the endangered species recover, the filed lawsuit argues that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed the deadline for the designation under the Endangered Species Act on Aug. 9.
Though, the otter was put on the list in August 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not yet designate it ‘critical habitat’ even when it is generally needed to list it as endangered within a year, if it fails to do it immediately.
The lawsuit says,
Sea otters in southwest Alaska are in a grave situation with alarming and ongoing population declines. The absence of critical habitat permits the degradation, modification, and destruction of habitat essential to the Alaska sea otter’s survival and recovery.