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For Immediate Release
Rare East Coast Shorebird Faces Extinction As Fish and Wildlife Service Refuses to List Species as Endangered
Red Knot Numbers Continue to Decline
Washington, D.C. -- The decision today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to relegate the rufa red knot – a rare migratory shorebird—to the "waiting room"of candidate list under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a move that will likely doom the species to extinction, according to a coalition of environmental groups seeking protection for the migratory shorebird.
"When it comes to the red knot's survival, the Fish and Wildlife Service is doing far too little, far too late. The red knot is America's most rapidly declining species and the one most in need of fast action. The government's slow-poke approach greatly increases the likelihood and imminence of the red knot's extinction," stated Greg Butcher, Audubon's Director of Bird Conservation.
Candidate species do not receive any ESA protection. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service places plants and animals on this list when they believe the species may warrant protection under the ESA, but the Service determines there are higher priority listing activities.
Recent scientific data clearly illustrate the drastic decline of the rufa red knot, including a recent study that warns that this subspecies faces extinction as soon as 2010 if immediate steps are not taken to halt its decline. The Service itself also commissioned a draft status statement for the red knot that provided comprehensive data about the bird's decline.
The red knot undertakes one of the longest migrations of any bird, wintering in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina and nesting in Arctic Canada. The species’ decline has been caused by over-fishing of horseshoe crabs, whose eggs form the mainstay of the knot's diet during its migration through Delaware Bay. Prior to the dramatic increase in the take of horseshoe crabs in the 1990s, a plentiful supply of eggs allowed the red knots to feed briefly in the bay and gain the weight needed to successfully complete a nonstop flight to their Canadian Arctic breeding grounds. However, now red knots are not getting enough horseshoe crab eggs to fuel their migration to the Canadian arctic breeding grounds, thus they are not able to breed successfully because of their low weight. According to the Federal Registry their numbers have declined from 15,345 in 2005 to just 13,455 in 2006.
Currently 279 species are on the candidate list. Each is assigned a listing priority. At this point the listing priority of the red knot is six on a scale of one to twelve. Species have been known to languish on this list for many years.
Today’s announcement follows the filing of two emergency petitions to list the red knot. Those petitions were denied by the U.S. FWS.
Statements by coalition partners:
"The Fish and Wildlife Service is studying the red knot into extinction. Despite a recently completed study showing that all signs point to extinction in a few years, the Service refuses to do what is necessary to protect and recover the bird. It’s hard to imagine there are higher priorities for the Service in this region," stated Caroline Kennedy of Defenders of Wildlife.
"Unless listing happens soon, it will be too late for recovery efforts to bring the species back. The ESA is criticized for failing to recover species while other species are left hanging until they are near impossible to recover. If FWS recognizes that the species should be listed then it should be listed now. The costs of saving the species will only increase if its decline is allowed to continue," said Mike Parr Vice President for American Bird Conservancy.
"This failure to list now can only be seen as a conscious decision to sacrifice irreplaceable environmental phenomena, given what we know about the peril of the red knot," said Tim Dillingham, Executive Director of the American Littoral Society.
"Study after study has shown the federal Endangered Species Act works. Listed species are more likely to recover. The science and our children’s future calls for the listing of the red knot today," declared Eric Stiles, Vice President for Conservation and Stewardship, New Jersey Audubon Society.
"By choosing not to act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is making a very conscious and recognizable choice to allow the Delaware Bay's population to wither and die from existence -- it is a choice that we in the region will not stand for," observes Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper.
"This is a cynical ploy to look like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to protect the red knot but instead is sending them toward extinction," declared Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter.
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Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities.
