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Jeff Jeffords / DiveGallery.com
A dwarf, or pygmy, seahorse.
A species of seahorse that's just an inch tall, the smallest in U.S. waters, appears to warrant endangered protection, the U.S. said Thursday in kicking off a year-long review process.
Found in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in the Atlantic off Florida and the Caribbean, the dwarf seahorse caught the attention of the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group that petitioned for protection a year ago.
"The petition and information in our files present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned actions may be warranted," the National Marine Fisheries Service said in its decision.
"Declines in the dwarf seahorse population have been documented in a number of Florida’s estuaries and bays," the agency added. "It is evident that the dwarf seahorse is inextricably associated with seagrass and the inferences made about the species’ declining status due to habitat loss are supported."
Seagrass is critical habitat for the seahorses, and the center said that Florida alone has lost more than half of its seagrasses since 1950.
It argued that the dwarf seahorse -- which lives for about a year and is the third smallest seahorse species in the world -- is also threatened by the aquarium trade and could be impacted by the 2010 BP oil spill.
"I'm not aware of any new studies on seahorses that have been published since the spill," Tierra Curry, a biologist for the group, told msnbc.com, but the original petition includes references to "studies that have been done on the toxicity of oil to seahorses and seagrasses."
"Oil spills like the one two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico exact a terrible toll on marine life, especially species like the dwarf seahorse that were already struggling to survive," Curry added. "These inevitable, catastrophic spills will be a threat as long as we persist with destructive, dangerous offshore drilling."
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Leave a Comment:
Ahh I see Obama finally found his excuse to ban oil drilling off the coast.. It will be put on the endangered species list effectively banning drilling along the coastline..
Then China will show up and try to annex the area like they are doing to Japan and everyone else over there...
Sheeeesh, a year long study at a cost to the taxpayers of how much ?
If they are going to do that, then they should include a study of the BP Oil plume movements with the bill sent directly to BP.
This sorta reminds me of the endangered California Delta Smelt, or the other California endangered species:
Maybe California should include their sanctuary city, and the residents, in San Francisco, the "endangered city by the Bay".....that way they could get more Federal funding to divert declaration of bankruptcy.
Time to spend billions more to protect it, as well as make at least 10 laws banning things people can do because it might affect them.
Interesting that Obama wants to ban all oil production when under president Obama domestic oil production has increased.
But w/e, he's black and Fox News tells you to hate him, so no reason to question it.
Just like how President Obama NOT banning guns is proof that he has a nefarious plan to ban gun ownership in America.
Do you not understand , Sam and Ido, that a decline of this and other small species indicates far deeper problems? It's like a canary in the coal mine. Would you rather wait until we have rotting whale carcasses floating off shore before we actually try to clean up the water?
Do you not understand, Sam, Ido and Bluthunder, that declines in such small species are indicative of far deeper problems? You figure we should wait until we have rotting whale carcasses floating off shore before we actually try to fix the problems?
RealWorldProgressive,
Ain't that the truth!
Eevie,
They don't give a rat's ass about the future of the earth, they won't be around much longer!
what the %^#@ ...an excuse, like he needs one. anyone with a brain KNOWS we need to get off of fossil fuels and we need to this ASAP. we don't NEED any more oil drilling, spills, pollution causing the sickness and death of our land and sea animals.
I hope it is protected. We need to be protecting all of the creatures in our waters and in the ocean. Drilling needs to be banned there anyway. No one is going to annex what's left of our coasts, but it makes a nice pro-drilling soundbite.
Kiss the energy, tourism and fishing industries in Florida/Gulf states good bye, unemployment increasing, as no one will be able to go into the ocean because of the little critter!
The Obama administration (could be gone next year) and its rabid environmentalist allies are turning the USA into a third world country economically because they don't know how to compromise from their left wing ideology.
Why would protecting this sea horse affect tourism? And the reason it is endangered is due to the disappearance of the sea grass beds where it lives. Those same sea grass beds are very important in the reproduction cycles of fish and shrimp that constitute commercial fisheries, so the fishing industry is greatly helped by listing the sea horses as endangered. Read the article, and use your head for what it is intended and you will learn that one of the main threats to the sea grass, and thus fisheries, and tourism, and yes, these tiny sea horses is oil spills.
That doesn't mean that drilling can't happen, it just means that it needs to happen with every safeguard we know of in place. Drilling in the US territorial waters is not required to use safety measures that Canada and Norway consider standard. The recent gulf oil spill could have been prevented by using equipment that those countries require on every drilling project in their waters. And hwy don't we require this. Because the oil companies complain that this would increase the cost of a well by half a million dollars. Half a million versus the billions of damage done by the spill. Now, who again is behaving like a third world country?
Joe, the greatest blow to Gulf States tourism was the BP oil spill disaster. This may shock you, but nature is a fantastic tourist attraction.
you and the brainless wonders who seem to hate the environement...let's see how you do without one. how will you live...you won't. you should be thanking people who do care. i'd love to see the end of commerical fishing everywhere the practices they use are destroying the oceans. please do some research before posting inane comments.
irrert you appear to be a typical Obama left wing supporter, using insults not rational arguments!
Human beings depend on their environment, and every little creature in it, for survival. No environment means no you. How is that an irrational argument? Do you even know what "rational" means? We all learned about the food chain in fifth grade. Ten year olds understand that what we do to the smallest of us we do to ourselves. I know it's hard for you short-sighted, "money is everything" Repubs to understand, but let's start with the basics. Go back and read your Dr. Suess and we'll go from there.
Another Democratic far left wing loony heard from, slinging insults but no facts.
Sorry I'm not a Republican! I have a scientific background and consider these kinds of articles opinion searching for facts. It's sort of like being guilty until proven innocent!
Joe, those people are making somewhat colorful arguments, you are slinging insults. And what are probably lies... Your comments tend to undercut your claim of a scientific background, but hey, if you want to believe it...
No, not colorful arguments but insults to anyone that doesn't agree with their point of view!
joe
Not by our criminal governor. He slaps himself on his own back every time he is on TV. About how great a job he is doing here in Florida.
aw c'mon...Rick's a good boy. His mom said so. (yes, it most definitely is sarcasm. i just can't find the sarcasm button.)
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/blog/rick-scott-brings-out-his-mom-new-tv-ad
On topic, they need to do everything that they can to restore and preserve sea life habitats and by helping to do this, it will create some jobs.
Every time I see him, I'm reminded of Lex Luther! He is a conniving creep!
All Americans who are currently out of work should also get endangered species protection, since we're losing our homes and starving to death while Michelle Obama flies around the world on our nickel, entertaining her kids by visiting celebrities in foreign countries at $500,000 per trip.
"These inevitable, catastrophic spills will be a threat as long as we persist with destructive, dangerous offshore drilling."
Yes. And oil companies will persist with destructive, dangerous offshore drilling as long as there is demand for oil. The best thing we can do- for our own health, for our childrens' health, for other species' health- is to dramatically reduce our demand for energy.
That is a good plan Kate, you do it but just don't expect me to change my life to accommodate the way you want to live.
We would have less spills if we adopted the safeguards that civilized countries like Canada and Norway have in place rather than allow drilling by slap-dash third world standards. Face it, the BP oil spill has proven one thing: our drilling companies just aren't very good at their jobs.
so let me get this straight....we are going to spend how much on an animal that lives only 1 year??? it is called natural selection or for us common folk..@!$%# happens....animals go extinct all the time and at some point so will we.
just came back from a fishing trip down there and believe it or not you would never know that there was a spill...you see this planet of ours has this great ability to heal itself but for some reason we think that our little species is the be all end all of its protector..like i said before at some time this planet will just shake us off like fleas but not because of something we did but because it was our time like it will be this sea horses time
Some species go on the endangered list not for their own value, but because the health of that species is an indication of the health of the ecosystem in which it lives. This tiny little sea horse lives in sea grass beds, which as the article stated, are very fragile and very much harmed by oil spills.
Now, you may not care much about sea grass beds, and I suspect you don't and know nothing about them. But, just maybe you like eating the shrimp, lobsters, and many tasty fish species that both know about and care about sea grass beds. You see, it's where those tasty little morsels go to breed and create more tasty little morsels. With no sea grass beds, you have no shrimp and fish, because their nursery is gone. So, when this sea horse goes extinct due to lack of sea grass, smart people know that is a sure prediction that other species will also be going extinct.
I've heard of dwarf seahorses living for much longer than 1 year. Not sure where you got that from. (I didn't see it in the article but if it was then it was false)
I wonder whether it is possible to petition for protection of the Blue Collar American Worker, whose natural habitat and means of sustenance are being destroyed irrevocably by its primary predators the Capitalist Pig and the Offshore Slave Laborer?
Hmmmmmmmm! :-o
Ok so now we are not supposed to do anything wherever this seahorse is. What a crock.
"could be impacted by the 2010 BP oil spill" Really? What makes you think living in millions of gallons of crude oil affects life? I bet BP is fuming and threating to sue over this unfounded statement. DRILL BABY DRILL!
This tiny fragile little cute guy needs protection.
I caught one of those cute teeny seahorse's once in the mid 90's at Englewood Beach on the Gulf side. My kids wanted to keep it, of course we put him/her back in the water! Never seen one since.
youtube "If I wanted America to fail".
I sort of disagree with that. The number of wild caught dwarf seahorses are dwindling, as they breed in captivity frequently. As a seahorse keeper, I've never come across a dwarf seahorse that wasn't captive bred.
I do agree that they need protection (forgot to mention that)