Conservationists Sue to Protect Endangered Gulf Seabird Habitat

The US Fish and Wildlife Service was hit with a new lawsuit Tuesday over the agency’s alleged failure to designate a critical habitat for the endangered black-capped petrel under the Endangered Species Act.

The Interior Department subagency missed the ESA’s one-year deadline to designate critical habitat along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico shores for the species, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

Offshore drilling combined with increasingly volatile Atlantic storms driven by climate change are threats to the seabird’s nesting habitat, and the government ...