Environmental group to sue over sea turtle protections

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An environmental group says it will take the National Marine Fisheries Service to court over reductions in plans to keep endangered and threatened sea turtles from drowning in inshore shrimp nets off of eight states.

The fisheries service in late 2019 scaled back plans to make inshore shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico and southeast Atlantic put turtle escape hatches into their nets.

Under U.S. law, people and groups planning challenges to actions taken under the Endangered Species Act must give the government 60 days notice. That’s what the Center for Biological Diversity is doing.

A fisheries service spokeswoman says the agency cannot comment on pending litigation.