Federal government decide upon 2 Mississippi turtles protection

federal government says it will decide wher protection is needed for a freshwater turtle found only in Mississippi and a related species found in Mississippi and Louisiana.

agreement settles a lawsuit filed in January calling for a declaration that Pearl River map turtles and Pascagoula map turtles are endangered or threatened. One is found in Pearl River watershed in Louisiana and Mississippi, and or only in part of Mississippi’s Pascagoula River system.

“rth American turtles survived asteroid that killed disaurs, but se two species need help to live through havoc we’re wreaking on rivers,” Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney for Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release Monday. “se turtles are in steep decline and need safeguards afforded by Endangered Species Act before it’s too late.”

government agreed to make a decision on turtle's status by Oct. 29, 2021, said statement from Center for Biological Diversity and Healthy Gulf, ar ecological nprofit. settlement was proposed June 12 and approved Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C.

According to lawsuit, plans for a dam in Hinds and Rankin counties in south-central Mississippi could wipe out Pearl River map turtle by turning rivers where it lives into a lake.

Threats to both species include both selling turtles and removing logs and snags where turtles bask so that boats can move through more easily, Totoiu said in January. He said turtles are sold both as pets and to Asian food and medicinal markets.

International Union for Conservation of Nature considers both species endangered.

Pascagoula and Pearl River map turtles are among 13 species of map turtles, named for shell markings that resemble maps. y also are called sawbacks because ir shells have a central ridge that sometimes develops saw-like points.

se two species look so similar that until June 2010 — two months after environmental groups asked protection for Pascagoula map turtle — y were considered one species.

(Im credit: AP)