The federal government has proposed new rules to protect the habitat of endangered loggerhead sea turtles off the shores of six states. 

The protections cover waters off of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi — Hawaii is noticeable absent. 

An attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three conservation groups that forced the government to move forward on the rules, said that Hawaii should have been included.

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal. 

From a Center for Biological Diversity press release: 

After more than five years of delay, the federal government today finally proposed to protect 36 areas of ocean habitat across six states for loggerhead sea turtles, in response to a lawsuit filed by three conservation groups. Loggerhead sea turtles face serious threats from pollution, drowning and injury in fishing gear, and loss of nesting beaches due to coastal development and sea-level rise, all of which are preventing the recovery of this vulnerable species.

Although today’s proposal is a step forward for turtle conservation, the plan limits protections to waters offshore of southeastern nesting beaches, even though loggerheads regularly go as far north as Massachusetts. It also fails to protect areas where the turtles are known to feed on both east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico.

— Sophie Cocke