Feds to decide if 2 Mississippi turtles need protection

Source: AP

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The federal government says it will decide whether protection is needed for a freshwater turtle found only in Mississippi and a related species found in Mississippi and Louisiana.

The agreement settles a lawsuit filed in January calling for a declaration that Pearl River map turtles and Pascagoula map turtles are endangered or threatened. One is found in the Pearl River watershed in Louisiana and Mississippi, and the other only in part of Mississippi’s Pascagoula River system.

“North American turtles survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, but these two species need help to live through the havoc we’re wreaking on rivers,” Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release Monday. “These turtles are in steep decline and need the safeguards afforded by the Endangered Species Act before it’s too late.”

The government agreed to make a decision on the turtle’s status by Oct. 29, 2021, said the statement from the Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf, another ecological nonprofit. The settlement was proposed June 12 and approved Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C.



This undated photo provided by the Center for Biological Diversity shows a Pascagoula map turtle. The federal government says it will decide whether protection is needed for Pascagoula map turtles, found only in Mississippi, and Pearl River map turtles, found in Mississippi and Louisiana. (Grover Brown/Center for Biological Diversity via AP)


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