WASHINGTON (CN) - A petition by the WildEarth Guardians to protect the warsaw grouper under the Endangered Species Act does not contain sufficient information to warrant further study at this time, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The warsaw grouper is a large member of the sea bass family indigenous to the waters from North Carolina to the northern coast of South America.
The petition argues that the warsaw is in decline due to overfishing by the commercial fishing industry and that it is inadequately protected by existing regulatory mechanisms.
However, the agency determined that there is insufficient documentation of a widespread decline in the population of the species and that where declines have been detected they are not of sufficient magnitude to warrant a full 12 month review.
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