Responding to a 2001 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today denied Endangered Species Act protection to the Kittlitz’s murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris), an Alaskan seabird. “The Kittlitz’s murrelet is one of America’s most imperiled birds, but federal officials have decided not to save the species from extinction,” said Shaye Wolf, the Center’s climate science director. “It’s tragic that our government has denied protection to this clearly endangered seabird, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of drastic population declines.” The Kittlitz’s murrelet — also known as the “glacier murrelet” — forages in coastal waters near glacier outflows, where its fish and zooplankton food is abundant. The number of birds has declined by 80 percent to 90 percent in recent decades in core areas from Glacier Bay to Prince William Sound. In its listing analysis, the Service concluded that Kittlitz’s murrelets in Alaska experienced a large-scale decline of 30 percent per year between 1989 and 2000 and likely have continued to decline at a slower rate since 2000. The Center submitted a petition in 2001 to list the Kittlitz’s murrelet under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In 2004 the Service determined that the Kittlitz’s murrelet warranted protection but was “precluded” from listing, putting this species on a long waiting list for protection. In 2011 the Center and the Service reached a landmark agreement that ensures that all the species on the federal waiting list for protection as of 2010 get decisions within the next four years. Today’s decision resulted from this agreement.
More information on the Kittlitz’s murrelet and the Center’s work to protect the species is available at
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/Kittlitzs_murrelet/ind….
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization
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