Bumphead Parrotfish Progresses Toward Federal Protection

Group Applauds Government Decision for "Polar Bear of the South Pacific"

Denver, CO-April 2. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a positive preliminary finding today on a petition by WildEarth Guardians requesting federal Endangered Species Act protection for the Bumphead Parrotfish. With today’s decision, NMFS will now conduct a review as to whether the Parrotfish merits federal protection.

WildEarth Guardians requested Bumphead Parrotfish protection on December 31, 2009, during the launch of its “BioBlitz,” an eight-week long effort to encourage the U.S. federal government to bring more endangered plants and animals under the protection of the Endangered Species Act during 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.

“We’re pleased that the Fisheries Service will carefully consider Endangered Species Act protection for the bumphead parrotfish. This species desperately needs federal safeguards, as each adult bumphead requires 5 tons of coral per year to survive and therefore faces extreme peril from climate change,” stated Dr. Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians.

The Bumphead Parrotfish occurs on coral reefs in U.S. territories and many other countries in the Southern Pacific Ocean, as well as portions of the Indian Ocean. WildEarth Guardians’ petition explained how this large, wide-ranging fish is rapidly vanishing. Its fate is tied to coral reefs, as each individual Bumphead Parrotfish (which can grow up to four feet long) consumes more than five tons of coral every year. It excretes the white sands that create beautiful beaches, which attract millions of tourists each year. Scientists consider this fish a keystone species, as it increases coral reef resilience to extreme weather events. But climate change-induced ocean warming is causing widespread coral bleaching and acidification is stunting coral growth.

“In some ways, the bumphead parrotfish is the polar bear of the South Pacific. If climate change is not arrested and reversed, the parrotfish’s fate may be sealed,” said Rosmarino.

Other threats documented in the petition include overfishing, to which this parrotfish is particularly vulnerable due to its behavior of sleeping in large groups at night near reefs. In addition to being targeted by fishers, it is slow to mature and has low reproductive rates. Further concerns include coastal development and pollution and consequent degradation of coral reefs. These threats are driven by a rapidly growing human population within the parrotfish’s range. Scientists have demonstrated that when human numbers rise, large fish in an area tend to decline.

Today’s finding acknowledges that Bumphead Parrotfish populations have been declining throughout their range. NMFS calls for information on the species’ population numbers and threats indicated by the petition. Comments are due May 3, 2010.

WildEarth Guardians’ petition for the Bumphead Parrotfish was during “Climate Week” of the BioBlitz, following on the heels of the disappointing Copenhagen climate talks. Climate Week featured four animals whose imperilment is caused by various effects from the destabilization of the planet’s climate: the Mist Forestfly, whose fate is tied to the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park in Montana; the Bay Skipper, a Gulf Coast butterfly imperiled due to increasingly intense hurricanes, such as Hurricane Katrina; the Jemez Mountains Salamander, a New Mexico amphibian that suffers from drought, as it requires moisture to breathe through its skin; as well as the Bumphead Parrotfish.

“The Endangered Species Act is an important approach to forcing cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, to safeguard imperiled wildlife from the many harmful effects of global climate change,” stated Rosmarino.

WildEarth Guardians has been at the forefront of endangered species enforcement in the U.S. The group is a formal partner in the United Nation’s Year of Biodiversity (see here), in which “The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.”

View today's finding here.

View the Bumphead Parrotfish fact sheet


 

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