The Obama administration has agreed to map out areas for designation as protected nesting beaches for endangered loggerhead sea turtles.
The announcement comes as part of a legal settlement with conservation groups that calls for the implementation of the stepped-up turtle protections by next year.
The United States Department of Commerce agreed to a July 1 deadline for a preliminary proposal on the critical habitat of loggerheads in the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico, under an agreement filed late last week in U.S. District Court in California.
Three environmental groups sued the government in January, accusing it of violating the Endangered Species Act by not taking steps to ensure the survival of loggerhead turtles, according to a report by Reuters
The act states a species may be listed as threatened or endangered depending on its risk for extinction.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier identified more than 740 miles of beaches in six states along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts as critical nesting habitats for the threatened loggerheads.
The settlement stipulates the government must reach a final determination of the loggerhead habitats to be protected July 1, 2014.
The lawsuit was initiated by the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana Inc. and Turtle Island Restoration and asserted the long-term survival of the otherwise long-lived marine turtles was threatened by oil spills and other pollution, climate change, rising seas and erosion and, last but not least, the destruction as well as degradation of nesting and foraging habitats.
Loggerheads, first designated as threatened in 1978, can live decades and weigh hundreds of pounds, scientists say.
The groups first petitioned the government for added loggerhead protections back in 2007, said Jaclyn Lopez, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicated it was already working to identifying critical habitats before the lawsuit was filed.
"Critical habitat was undeterminable based on the information we had available at the time," Charles Underwood, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in north Florida, was quoted saying by Reuters.
Underwood said the subsequent discovery of new information enabled the agency to "take a closer look and identify the terrestrial habitat criteria and locations."
A period for the members of the public and organizations to comment on the proposed new protections ends May 24.