The National Marine Fisheries Service said a petition by three environmental groups to establish critical habitat for leatherback sea turtles puts additional focus on fisheries that already try to protect turtles.

NMFS has had protections in place for the turtles since 2001, from Point Conception, Calif., to the northern Oregon Coast. The area is closed to drift gill net fishing annually from Aug. 15 to Nov. 15, coinciding with peak turtle migrations off Oregon.

Craig Heberer, a Fisheries Service biologist, said no turtles have been caught in gill nets since then.

But that hasn't stopped Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network from filing the lawsuit against the feds seeking more protection. The drift gill net seasonal closure has cut down on incidental takes, but fishing gear, especially longlines, still threaten leatherbacks in foraging territory, according to the groups' suit.

The petitioners are asking the fisheries service to designate the water off the Oregon and California coast as critical habitat.

Conservation groups file numerous lawsuits, but this one is different.

NMFS spokesman Jim Milbury said they've demanded critical habit for an ocean species that migrates through international waters. He said that puts the issue on a global, not regional, scale.

"It's a very complex issue," Milbury said.

Ben Enticknap, Oceana's Pacific project manager, said establishing the Oregon and California waters as critical habitat wouldn't necessarily have to mean more restrictions. Rather, the designation requires federal agencies to scrutinize any activities happening or proposed in the region, including fishing practices, off-shore developments and the effects of climate change.

Scott Benson, a NMFS biologist who has studied leatherback migration patterns, said the largest density of the turtles in Oregon is around the mouth of the Columbia River. The turtles typically are found about 40 to 60 miles off the coast. Marc Ward, director of Seaside-based Sea Turtles Forever, said biologists have been using GPS to track leatherbacks. Small groups of them have been spotted about 15 miles west of Seaside. According to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife fact sheet, the turtles forage in small numbers as far north as British Columbia, Canada.

Conservationists contend the populations are dwindling too fast. Egg harvesting is rampant in places such as Indonesia where the turtles nest. At sea, they can become entangled in fishing nets, caught on longlines or swallow and choke on plastics resembling their favorite food -  jellyfish.

And jellies are what attract them to Oregon.

"Procrastination by the Fisheries Service simply means that more and more turtles are being caught and killed," Enticknap said in a press release.

Benson said his research is used by the NMFS to establish where and when commercial boats can fish with the least impact to endangered and threatened species.

"Catching turtles is not what they want to do," he said.

Leatherbacks are the largest sea turtle species in the world, migrating more than 6,000 miles from nesting beaches to spend several months in the late summer and fall off the West Coast to forage.

Heberer said crossing international water creates a "transfer effect," meaning U.S. fishing vessels aren't the only commercial boats that could have contact with the turtles. Foreign fisheries may have fewer restrictions on seasons and gear, which may render U.S. efforts to protect the species less effective.

"We can shut down every (U.S.) boat, but without international cooperation, the plight of the leatherback will continue," Heberer said.

In 1982, around 115,000 adult female leatherbacks existed in the world. By 1996, 34,500 remained. Pacific leatherback populations have dwindled 95 percent in the last two decades.

"If current trends continue, Pacific leatherbacks are predicted to go extinct within the next few decades," the petition stated.