The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the pink whipray as Least Concern overall, citing its wide distribution that includes refuge regions with few conservation threats.
Limiting the scope of oil exploration is a direct pitch to win over six moderate Republicans who have said they are likely to oppose drilling in the refuge, a region with a fragile ecosystem that national environmental groups describe as one of the last unspoiled frontiers in the country.
Several national wildlife refuges in the region offer sanctuary to varied populations of shorebirds and marine mammals.
"From the beginning this has been the refuge of the region's terrorist groups," Colonel Burkhard said of the area around Tessalit, a settlement near the Algerian border.
An estimated 110,000 people are seeking refuge in the region, tens of thousands more than a year ago.
Brazil, Latin America's largest country, has been the main destination for Syrians seeking refuge in the region, with more than 2,000 Syrians granted asylum in the country since the start of the Syrian conflict.
Most of them have found refuge in the region; Germany has agreed to resettle 20,000 refugees and America has already granted visas to 9,100 Syrians as part of an "open-ended" policy.
The Pakistanis say Afghan and American forces, which have largely left northeastern Afghanistan over the past two years, have allowed factions of the Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan movement that focuses on attacks against the Pakistani government, to find refuge in the region.
Persistence of a Red Sea lineage through Pleistocene glacial cycles suggests a long-term refuge in this region.
Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Christians and Druze are the main population groups in a country that has been a refuge for the region's minorities for centuries.
