Ashy Storm Petrel At Risk

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 2, 2009 at 3:05 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The Center for Biological Diversity says a federal agency is not responding fast enough to protect a sea bird that lives off San Diego's coast. The group says the ashy storm petrel is at risk from dev

The Center for Biological Diversity says a federal agency is not responding fast enough to protect a sea bird that lives off San Diego's coast. The group says the ashy storm petrel is at risk from development and climate change. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for not issuing a finding on whether the ashy storm petrel should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

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Shaye Wolf is a biologist with the Center.

Wolf says the Fish and Wildlife Service determined lat May that the smoke-gray seabird may warrant listing. A finding was required to be issued last October.

"The ashy storm petrel has really declined significantly in recent decades," Wolf said. "Numbers have dropped by 42 percent over 20 years. And that decline of the storm petrel is really indicative of this increasing stress to our coastal ocean from threats like global warming and development and pollution."

The bird lives almost exclusively on the offshore islands and waters near San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

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Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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