^®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

FWS and NMFS Act to Protect Sea Turtles
On September 22, 2011, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service published joint Federal Register notice of their determination that the loggerhead sea turtle is composed of nine distinct population segments ("DPSs")which constitute "species'' that may be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In their final rule, FWS and NMFS list four DPSs as threatened and five as endangered under the ESA. Their Federal register notice states that FWS and NMFS will propose to designate critical habitat for the two loggerhead sea turtle DPSs occurring within the United States in a future rulemaking. FWS and NMFS encourage interested parties to provide any information related to the identification of critical habitat and essential physical or biological features for this species, as well as economic or other relevant impacts of designation of critical habitat.

In the same Federal Register, FWS and NMFS announced the public availability of their Bi- National Recovery Plan for the Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle. The Recovery Plan is a bi-national plan developed by the NMFS and USFWS and the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Mexico. The revised Recovery Plan includes specific recovery objectives and criteria to be met in order to down and delist this species under the Endangered Species Act.