NOAA ... Listing Orange Clownfish as Endangered or Threatened not Warranted

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NOAA Concludes That Listing of Orange Clownfish as Endangered or Threatened Is Not Warranted

In September 2012 , the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Services (NOAA/NMFS) received a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to list eight species of reef fish as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act and to designate critical habitat for these species concurrent with the listing.

The affected species were:

1) the orange clownfish (Amphiprion percula);

2) the yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus);

3) the Hawaiian dascyllus (Dascyllus albisella);

4) the blue-eyed damselfish ( Plectroglyphidodon johnstonianus);

5) the black-axil chromis (Chromis atripectoralis);

6) the blue-green damselfish (Chromis viridis);

7) the reticulated damselfish (Dascyllus reticulatus); and

8) the blackbar devil or ****'s damselfish (Plectroglyphidodon dickii).

In September 2014, NOAA found that the petition failed to present substantial scientific or commercial information to warrant the listing of six (6) of the damselfish. (NOTE : A separate agency finding for listing the yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus) is still pending.)

The agency did; however, find that there was substantial information to indicate that the petitioned action may be warranted for the orange clownfish (Amphiprion percula).

When NOAA/NMFS solicited scientific and commercial information from interested parties, PIJAC submitted its comments in opposition to the proposed listing.

On August 24, 2015, NOAA published its Notice of 12-Month Finding indicating that:

"Based on our consideration of the best available information, as summarized here and in Maison and Graham (2015), we determine that the orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, faces a low risk of extinction throughout its range both now and in the foreseeable future, and that there is no portion of the orange clownfish's range that qualifies as "significant" under the SPR Policy. We therefore conclude that listing this species as threatened or endangered under the ESA is not warranted. This is a final action, and, therefore, we do not solicit comments on it."

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[Timfish]

Good news! The Center for Biological Diversity should have had the same science NOAA had.