NMFS Announces Withdrawl of ESA Petition

In mid-November, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced that it had accepted the request of the petitioner to withdraw his petition to list the American oyster as threatened or endangered under provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  In the Federal Register notice NMFS says it will cease evaluation of the petition but will complete the status review report that was well on its way to completion.  In the NMFS statement, they believe that the status review report “will be the most timely and comprehensive resource document for this species” and “will be a useful tool in guiding future management decisions”.  A link to the full Federal Register notice can be found at the ECSGA website. 

As you probably know, ECSGA along with the Gulf Oyster Industry Council and the PCSGA worked hard to bring pressure on NMFS to deny the ESA listing.  In addition to an active letter-writing campaign, we worked with the National Fisheries Institute and the House Resources Committee which held a hearing on the issue where we gave testimony.  In the request to withdraw the petition it was noted that there were “significant concerns of some that the species may be listed as endangered, thereby creating severe restrictions and regulations for this resource”.   This was one of the main points we made in our arguments against listing, and apparently we were heard.  Thanks everyone who helped with this.

Although an ESA listing looks moot at this point, we need to be aware that the status review report is still pending.  The information in the report may be useful to us in many ways, but we should also be prepared to deal with the possibility that it will generate some negative press.

Link to Federal Register notice: (http://www.nero.noaa.gov/prot_res/CandidateSpeciesProgram/OysterWithdrawal.pdf)