Habitats of the Delta

   Entire ecosystems and the physical processes, the biogeochemical underpinnings, and inter-relationship between species that sustain the ecosystems must become the goal of preserving biological diversity. Yet, it is the human capacity for empathy and compassion, not ecosystem management and biodiversity efforts (despite the inherently sound contribution of each), that drives humans to fight for the rights of non-humans, a future for as many as possible, and saving habitat, plants and animals before they disappear as species (Chadwick, 1995).

   Calilfornia gray whales, which were once listed as endangered species, mate and give birth in the warm and salty waters of sheltered Mexican bays in the Sea of Cortez.

   Although the ESA takes credit for recovering nearly ten species, five-hundred species and subspecies of plants and animals have become extinct since the 1500's (Gillon and Snape, 2000; Pitt, 2001). Prediction models show that 25% of current species are to disappear by the year 2050 (Chadwick, 1995). It wasn't until 1973 that Congress responded with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that is today the most potent piece of environmental legislation in the world (Gillon and Snape, 2000; Pitt et al., 2000; Pitt, 2001). The ESA is based on a two-part assumption that each life-form may prove valuable in ways we cannot yet measure and that each is entitled to exist for its own sake. The tough and controversial law fuels bitter debates over economic balance, nature's balance, property rights, and the limits to growth (Chadwick, 1995).

   The first endangered species legislation was a 1966 bill that called for saving American wildlife, but like The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the Federal Land Policy Act (FLPA), it mostly provided regulation, not enforcement. Although the U.S. Department of Interior formed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to help control the trafficking of animals or animal parts worldwide, it is through the Fish and Wildlife Service (USMBP) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that the status of species at risk is reviewed and subsequently listed as threatened or endangered.

   More than 1,400 species are listed as threatened or endangered by the U.S. ESA (ESA, website_1). Of these, more than 500 foreign and oceanic species are protected through international trade sanctions. Yet another 3,700 species were candidates (1995) that had not yet been reviewed. Species have become threatened, endangered, or extinct through natural and man-made causes (ESA, website_1). Non-anthropogenic causes include poor reproduction, competition, disease, or predation. Anthropogenic causes include habitat destruction or alteration, and exploitation -- of either prized (i.e., Nellie Cory Cactus) or hated (i.e., Gray or Red Wolves) species (ESA, website_1). Rates of extinction can be slowed by including the protection of natural resources under the ESA.

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