September 10, 2020 — United States District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., handed down his remedy Aug. 19 to the National Marine Fisheries Services, which he ruled last spring had violated the Endangered Species Act in licensing the fisheries in the northeastern U.S.
He gave the NMFS until May 31, 2021, to conduct a new biological opinion on the fishing industry’s impacts on the endangered right whale species and measures to decrease whale deaths caused by the industry, vacating the previous biological opinion.
Earlier this year he found that the NMFS had failed to file an incidental take report in 2014 after discovering the vertical lines used in the fishing industry could be responsible for up to three whale deaths a year, which is more than the species can sustain, according to NMFS’ own calculations.
Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society of the United States, the plaintiffs in the case, requested over 5,000 square miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where large numbers of whales congregate, be closed to vertical line fishing.
Intervenors in the case argued that closing off that area to fishing would place more nets outside its boundaries, creating a situation where lines are closer together, increasing entanglement risks for whales trying to reach the area considered for fishing closure.
The judge decided against the plaintiffs’ request because there is no legal precedent for such an action, he said in his opinion. He decided it would be too detrimental to the New England fishing industry that is already struggling because of the coronavirus.