Wildlife Protection Woes

Last spring, a panel of six federal officials made a decision that could affect multiple species in the Gulf of Mexico.

The group, referred to as the “God Squad,” voted to limit the Endangered Species Act area in the Gulf, exempting all oil and gas drilling. The federal officials earned the nickname because the committee has the power to play God by deciding the fate of species that will be affected by their decisions.

The group has only been convened three times, and the only previous project on which it overrode the Endangered Species Act was a dam. In that case, the project included plans that helped at-risk cranes survive.

In this case, the committee’s decision will likely spell doom for the critically endangered Rice’s whale. The whales can be up to 40 feet long and are most threatened by human activities including oil spills, climate change, noise from vessels and gas drilling. The whale species dates back three million years, exists only in the Gulf, and has just 50 whales left in the world.

The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 to protect fish, wildlife and plants as threatened or endangered. Species can be added or removed from the lists, and the law also created a way to make and implement plans for species’ recovery.

 One of the greatest success stories of the Endangered Species Act is the bald eagle. In the 1960s, there were only about 500 bald eagles across America’s lower 48 states. Our national symbol was at risk of not surviving, but the protections provided by the federal law allowed bald eagles to bounce back.

After being protected in the 1960s, the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT, a pesticide that caused eagle eggshells to become hazardously thin. In 1995, bald eagles were downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened.” In 2007, bald eagles were officially delisted from the Endangered Species Act. Today, there are more than 14,000 breeding pairs of bald eagles.

Wildlife Facts:

• Endangered Species Act passed: 1973
• Bald eagles delisted: 2007
• Number of Rice’s whales: about 50