05R-322

2005 -- H 6584

Enacted 06/09/05

H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N

FORMALLY OBJECTING TO LISTING OF THE AMERICAN OYSTER (CRASSOSTREA VIRGINICA) AS ENDANGERED UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973

Introduced By: Representatives Naughton, Crowley, Ginaitt, Malik, and Carter

Date Introduced: June 09, 2005

     WHEREAS, On January 11, 2005, the United States National Marine Fisheries Service

(NMFS) received a petition listing the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) as endangered or

threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The petition addressed the five factors

identified in section 4(a)(1) of the ESA:

     (1) Current or threatened habitat destruction or modification or

      curtailment of habitat or range;

     (2) Over-utilization for commercial purposes;

     (3) Disease or predation;

     (4) Inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms;

     (5) Other natural or man-made factors affecting the species' continued

      existence; and

     WHEREAS, The petition asserts that the species warrant this listing based on all five of

the factors specified in the ESA (16 USC 1533(a)(1)) as it applies to the Chesapeake Bay; and

     WHEREAS, NMFS finds that the petition presents substantial scientific and commercial

information indicating that the petitioned action concerning the eastern oyster may be warranted;

and

     WHEREAS, NMFS will consider whether there is a separate subspecies that is threatened

or endangered and whether the entire species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a

significant portion of its range, or likely to become so in the foreseeable future; and

     WHEREAS, The American oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is the same species of oyster

that is commonly found in the estuarine environments of Rhode Island and the entire Atlantic and

Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States; and

     WHEREAS, This renewable fisheries resource supports active wild-harvest oyster

fisheries and a growing oyster aquaculture industry, with 22 farms and a farmgate value of nearly

$600,000 in the year 2004; and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Island's economy is greatly benefited by economic multipliers

attendant to the oyster fishing and aquaculture industries; and

     WHEREAS, The Rhode Island Constitution, Article 1, Section 17 states "…it shall be the

duty of the General Assembly to provide for the conservation of the air, land, water, plant,

animal, mineral and other natural resources of the state, and to adopt all means necessary and

proper by law to protect the natural environment of the people of the state by providing adequate

resource planning for the control and regulation of the use of the natural resources of the state and

for the preservation, regeneration and restoration of the natural environment of the state"; and

     WHEREAS, The traditions of Rhode Island's shellfisheries have led to numerous

cooperative projects to restore and enhance American oysters in our waters including the efforts

of Mr. Luther Blunt of Warren, Rhode Island, fisheries scientists from the RI Division of Fish and

Wildlife, the University of Rhode Island and Roger Williams University; and

     WHEREAS, Federal listing of American oysters as an endangered species would

generate a large, negative impact on the economy of Rhode Island by restricting oyster harvesting

and other economic activities that occur as a result of fishing, aquaculture and the oyster

resources; and

     WHEREAS, Economic incentives to undertake Rhode Island's traditional cooperative

efforts with the commercial oyster fishing and aquaculture industries to restore and enhance

populations of oysters in coastal waters would be severely diminished by the proposed

endangered species listing; and

     WHEREAS, Sufficient data exists indicating that American oysters are not in peril

throughout the entirety of its range; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby formally objects to the listing of the American (=Eastern) oyster

(Crassostrea virginica) as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973; and be it

further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Secretary of Commerce of the United

States, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the

Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Administrator of the

National Marine Fisheries Service, in Washington, D.C. and the Assistant Regional Administrator

for Protected Resources, NMFS Northeast Regional Office, One Blackburn Drive, Gloucester,

MA 01930, with reference to NOAA Docket No. 050509124-5124-0 (I.D. 050305B).

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LC03475

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