Endangered Species

Depending on the status of their populations in the wild, animals and plants may be designated as rare, threatened, and under extreme conditions, endangered. The 1800s in the United States were a period when a number of large, highly visible mammals, such as the plains bison Bison bison and the eastern subspecies of the elk Cervus elaphus canadensis were being hunted. The disappearance of such important prey increased the threat to the wolf and mountain lion, both predators dependant on ungulates (hoofed mammals) for food. In 1966, the United States Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act, which provided limited means of protection to native animals. The Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 took a wider view and provided protection to species facing extinction globally.

Finally, The Endangered Species Act (ESA) signed by President Richard Nixon into law in 1973, defined the term endangered species “as any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range other than a species of the Class Insecta determined by the Secretary (of the Interior) to constitute a pest whose protection under the provisions of this Act would present an overwhelming and overriding risk to man.” Section 4 of the ESA lists the various factors that help determine endangered status for a particular plant or animal. It requires the development and implementation of species recovery plans, as well as the designation of critical habitat for listed species. The ESA [Page 561]went even further, bringing together the provisions of Acts passed in the 1960s, resulting in the application of the same laws to U.S. and non-U.S. species. All classes of invertebrates became eligible for protection and all federal agencies were required to start conservation programs for endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) share responsibility for administering the ESA. The USFWS generally manages land and freshwater species while the NMFS manages marine and anadromous species (fish born in fresh water that migrate to the ocean and return to spawn in fresh water). Of the 1,869 species currently listed under the ESA, 1,300 are found partly or completely within United States territory. At present, NMFS has management responsibility for 62 species, including the endangered blue whale Balaenoptera musculus and the marine leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea. The NMFS protects marine species from accidental capture in fisheries, habitat destruction, pollution, overharvest, and harmful contact with vessels by implementing time and area closures, modifications to fishing equipment, safe sea turtle handling practices, minimizing the effects of intense underwater sound, and minimizing strikes from ships by providing information on whale locations to ships at sea.