Source:
Environment News ServiceWASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2008 (ENS) - Even as it seeks to downgrade protections for the endangered Florida manatee, the Bush administration is withholding records about how well key protections are being implemented, claims a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national nonprofit association of government workers in natural resource agencies.
For the past 11 months has been fruitlessly seeking records about the status of efforts to prevent boating deaths, the leading cause of manatee mortality, and stop harassment of manatees by swimmers.
Despite a record number of manatee deaths in 2006 and a high level in 2007, PEER alleges that the Bush administration is "pushing to downgrade the manatee from endangered status, which will facilitate construction of marinas and other development inside critical Florida coastal habitat areas."
"The manatee protection information we are requesting is precisely the sort of data the Fish and Wildlife Service should be actively tracking - they should not have to go on an archaeological expedition to dig it up," Draper said, noting that the State of Florida recently shelved its own efforts to downgrade the protective status of the manatee. "We are not going away until we get our questions answered."
Read more:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-23-093.asp