GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Conservation groups have gone to court to get the federal government make good on its proposal to expand habitat protections for endangered western Pacific leatherback sea turtles to include feeding areas off the West Coast.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday asks a judge to order NOAA Fisheries Service to take final action expanding protected habitat to include more than 70,000 square miles of ocean waters off Washington, Oregon and California, where Leatherbacks feed on jellyfish after migrating across the Pacific from nesting grounds in Indonesia.
The final ruling was due Jan. 5.
NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Christine Patrick says they are ‘very close’ to issuing a final rule on the critical habitat.
