April 21, 2021 — The Biden administration finalized a rule that will conserve approximately 118,000 square nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean as protected habitat for the humpback whale.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finalized the rule that conserves a large swath of ocean off the coast of North America, spanning from Southern California to the Bering Sea in Alaska.
Conservationists tout the rule as necessary to protect three separate populations of endangered whales from ship strikes, entanglements with fishing nets and oil spills.
“Pacific humpbacks finally got the habitat protections they’ve needed for so long,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Now we need to better protect humpbacks from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, their leading causes of death.”
The finalization of the rule comes after a lengthy court battle between conservationists and the U.S. government ended in a 2018 settlement.