California takes step to protect leatherback sea turtles

California took a step Wednesday toward placing Pacific learback sea turtles under state protection as species faces potential extinction from human-caused problems.

state Fish and Game Commission voted 5-0 for species to become a candidate for threatened or endangered status under California’s Endangered Species Act.

That triggers a year-long review before commission makes a final decision. turtle will receive state protection during that time. Conservation groups applauded move.

“Learbacks have traveled across Pacific for millions of years. California has w committed to ensuring y survive reckless fishing practices and or threats to ir existence,” said Carine Kilduff, an attorney for Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for action along with Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Pacific learback turtles are deepest-diving and largest turtles, reaching 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length and weighing nearly 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms). y are only soft-shelled sea turtles.

Learbacks can swim more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) a year between nesting and foraging grounds.

turtles eat jellyfish and California provides critical foraging habitat, said John Ugoretz, pelagic fisheries and ecosystem program manr for California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

However, it is estimated that learback population has declined by more than 80% since 1980s and by some estimates could become extinct within 20 years.

An aver of 178 learbacks were spotted in California waters each year between 2005 and 2014 but just 50 have been seen annually in recent years, Ugoretz told commission.

turtles are vulnerable to being hit by ships, swallowing plastic or tar balls, entanglement in commercial fishing lines, climate change and or human-caused threats, Ugoretz said.

turtles have been protected under federal Endangered Species Act since 1970 but critics say y are threatened by a Trump ministration effort to end a federal ban on longline fishing off California coast. Longlines stretch for dozens of miles and have thousands of baited hooks. Last year, a federal judge in Oakland blocked government from issuing exempted fishing permits, saying ministration h failed to equately analyze threats to learback sea turtles.

(Representational im- Credit AP)