Emperor penguins closer to Endangered Species Act protection

Emperor penguins.
Photo credit: Michael Van Woert,
NOAA

USA - In response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the emperor penguin may warrant Endangered Species Act protection based on threats from climate change.

The most ice-dependent of all penguin species, emperor penguins are threatened by the loss of their sea-ice habitat and declining food availability in Antarctica.

“Our carbon pollution is melting the sea-ice habitat emperor penguins need to survive,” said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center.

“Emperor penguins are the icons of wild Antarctica, and they need rapid cuts in carbon pollution and Endangered Species Act protections if they’re going to have a future.”

Emperor penguins rely on sea ice for raising their chicks and foraging. In parts of Antarctica where sea ice is rapidly disappearing, emperor penguins populations are declining or have been lost entirely. The emperor penguin colony featured in the film March of the Penguins has declined by more than 50 percent, and the Dion Island colony in the Antarctic Peninsula has disappeared. One recent study projected that nearly half of the world’s emperor penguins may disappear by mid-century without drastic cuts in carbon pollution.

Warming ocean temperatures and melting sea ice in the Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica have also diminished the availability of krill - a key food source for emperor penguins. Ocean acidification resulting from the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide and industrial krill fisheries further threaten the penguins’ food supply.

In 2006 the Center filed a petition to list 12 penguin species, including the emperor penguin, as threatened or endangered. The agency protected seven penguin species but denied protection to the emperor penguin. In 2011 the Center re-petitioned the Service to protect the emperor based on new scientific information demonstrating the species is imperiled. In today’s finding the Service agreed to conduct a full scientific status review to determine if the emperor penguin should be protected under the Act.

Endangered Species Act listing of the emperor penguin would offer greater protections against the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change and the industrial overfishing of key prey species. For example, if penguins are listed, future approval of fishing permits for US-flagged vessels operating on the high seas would require minimisation of impacts on penguins. The Act also compels federal agencies to ensure that their actions - including those generating large volumes of carbon pollution - do not jeopardise endangered species and their habitat. 

For more information on penguins and a link to the federal petition, please see www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/penguins/index.html.

Source
Emperor penguins closer to Endangered Species Act protection, 21 January 2013, Center for Biological Diversity