Marine Mammals Fewer Than Outdated Statistics Show

Marine mammals are being managed based on outdated population figures that show more animals than actually exist. Conservationists warn that this failure to provide accurate counts puts shrinking populations of polar bears, walrus, sea otters, and manatees in harms way. Two conservation organizations have filed a lawsuit against Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for failing to take into account the latest information on global warming and population numbers in management decisions concerning protected marine mammals. The suit, filed Thursday by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network in federal court in the Northern District of California, seeks to force the federal government to issue updated stock assessment reports for marine mammals ranging from Florida to Alaska. Stock assessments are population estimates that include information on the range of the species and threats to its survival. The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce prepare stock assessments for marine mammals. To ensure that decisionmakers have the most accurate information, stock assessments are supposed to be revised every year for endangered marine mammals and every three years for other species...