The National Marine Fisheries Service is again forced, under legal pressure from three environmental groups, to undertake a study of the population status of loggerhead turtles in two US populations. One group of turtles uses the coastal waters from North Carolina south to the eastern coast of Florida, and the other is located in the Gulf, along the Florida panhandle. If the NMFS survey of Loggerheads finds that the animals should be reclassified from threatened to endangered, then it is likely that a "critical habitat" determination will also have to be decided upon.

Similarly, a process is also under way to declare the Gulf Sturgeon in need of critical habitat status. The Environmental News Service reports (June 6, 2002) that the US Fish & Wildlife Service and NMFS are cooperating on a plan to declare a large number of streams and rivers that pour into the Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the coastal waters from Texas to Florida, as critical habitat for the sturgeon. The process is expected to be completed by early 2003.

The implications of this process for all users of Gulf and southeast coast waters are enormous. The Endangered Species Act and the Magnuson Fisheries Act both are anchors for the lawsuits and other actions taken by environmental groups that want all human activity to cease in the coastal waters of the United States. This impacts fishermen, of course, but also everyone upstream, as farmers, industries, communities and transportation facilities all contribute in some way to measurable pollution, disturbance, or "harmful impact" on the waters of the Gulf, thus, allegedly further endangering both loggerheads and sturgeon.

It is time for the American people to let their government know what is most important to them; no one wants to see endangered species become extinct. Yet, there must be practical compromises that could be agreed upon that would not endanger people and their livelihoods, as well.

IWMC suggests that since we all share the planet, we need to decide that if laws need to be changed to accommodate the needs of both resources and people, then those changes should be made as soon as possible in as fair a way as possible. The organizations active in the above matters, Oceana, Ocean Conservancy, Center for Biodiversity, Earth Island Institute, Earthjustice, and others, have as apparent goals, the ambition to keep people out of the oceans, away from fish, oil reserves, and any handy endangered species that they can designate as more important than human beings. We suggest that Americans urge their representatives to stop the process of exclusion of people from their coastal waters, their rivers, and the other wild places that they have always enjoyed and lived upon. There is no need to make a choice between "saving" turtles or sturgeon, in favor of people's cultural and economic needs. It is likely that with the help of scientists of integrity, NMFS and the USF&WS can overcome the plans of those who wish to so radically alter the future of Americans and their coastal resources.