Saving Seafood

Suit: Agencies fail to protect marine species from oil

January 27, 2022 — A conservation group says in a lawsuit that the U.S. government failed to protect endangered whales and other animals by underestimating the potential for an oil spill like a recent crude pipeline leak off California’s coast.

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday saying Interior Department agencies and the National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t ensure offshore oil and gas production wouldn’t jeopardize endangered and threatened species in accordance with U.S. law.

The lawsuit says the Service found in a 2017 analysis that oil and gas production wouldn’t likely have an adverse effect on threatened marine life off California’s coast, there was a low likelihood of an offshore oil spill and if one occurred, it would likely involve no more than 8,400 gallons (31,800 liters). The suit asks the court to vacate the analysis and bar new oil activity unless government agencies comply with the law protecting endangered species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

 

Lawsuit over whale protections off Maine’s coast to proceed

November 15, 2021 — A federal judge has declined to throw out a lawsuit against the federal government seeking tougher rules to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from collisions with ships.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation and other environmental groups in 2012, seeks to force the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) to take aggressive steps to protect the right whale population by setting a speed limit for vessels to prevent collisions.

The groups filed a new petition to the court last year accusing the federal agency of dragging its feet on responding to their request for new whale protection rules.

The Biden administration had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, but U.S. District Court judge Amit Mehta ruled on Wednesday that the federal agency “cannot ignore its obligation to fully and properly consider a petition for rulemaking.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

U.S. waterways plan draws lawsuit over species impacts

October 13, 2021 — A U.S. plan to expand the commercial use of navigable waterways increases risks to already imperiled species like the North Atlantic right whale, an environmental group claims in a lawsuit filed in Newport News, Virginia federal court on Tuesday.

The Center for Biological Diversity accuses the U.S. Maritime Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, of violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with its America’s Marine Highway program by failing to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to ensure the program does not jeopardize species protected under the statute.

The Center for Biological Diversity says that many of the marine highways are located in critical habitats for ESA-listed species, including humpback whales and leatherback sea turtles.

Read the full story at Reuters

MAINE: Mills Administration To Fight Right Whale Lawsuit That Could Lead To ‘Draconian’ Effects On Lobster Industry

September 15, 2021 — The Mills administration says it’s pursuing several actions to contest recently-released lobstering restrictions designed to protect endangered right whales. It’s also intervening in an ongoing lawsuit that officials say could be more devastating to the industry.

Marine Resources chief Patrick Keliher says that Gov. Janet Mills is hiring private attorneys to help fight a lawsuit in the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups that are challenging the data used by the federal government to issue lobstering regulations to protect right whales.

Keliher says prevailing in that lawsuit won’t undo the new federal lobstering regulations that effectively close off traditional lobstering for 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine from October through January.

Read the full story at Maine Public

 

MAINE: Lobstermen and conservationists sound off on new lobster regs 

September 9, 2021 — The day after new rules for the lobster fishery aimed at preserving the North Atlantic right whale came down from the federal government, Richard Larrabee Jr., an offshore lobsterman, was fuming.   

“I’m pissed as hell,” he said. “This makes no sense.”   

He wasn’t the only one. Both supporters of Maine’s lobster industry and conservation groups were displeased with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new rules, though largely for different reasons.  

Larrabee, who fishes out of Stonington, called it a textbook example of government overreach and said it wasn’t based in science. The Center for Biological Diversity, which has been waging legal battles on behalf of the critically endangered species, called them “half measures” that can’t be expected to save the whales.   

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

 

House Democrats Agree to $100 Million Allocation for Critically Endangered Species

August 31, 2021 — In a memo released by the House Natural Resources Committee, House Democrats will provide $550 million to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the upcoming budget reconciliation package, including $100 million for some of the most critically imperiled species in the United States.

The legislation will include $25 million to conserve and restore four of the most imperiled types of endangered species in the United States: butterflies, eastern freshwater mussels, Southwest desert fish and Hawaiian plants.

“This is the largest investment in the recovery of endangered species in a generation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If we’re going to tackle the extinction crisis and save these incredible species from the brink, this is exactly the type of bold action that’s needed.”

The reconciliation language mirrors Chairman Raúl Grijalva’s Extinction Prevention Act of 2021, which would fund on-the-ground conservation actions to stabilize the four groups of struggling endangered species.

A 2016 study found that Congress only provides approximately 3.5% of the estimated funding the Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientists say is needed to recover species. Roughly 1 in 4 species receives less than $10,000 a year toward recovery, and many of the endangered species that will benefit from this funding receive nothing for recovery in a given year.

Read the full story at Maui News

Endangered orcas get new protection from US government

August 2, 2021 — Endangered killer whales received new habitat protections from the U.S. government Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service finalized rules to expand the Southern Resident orca’s critical habitat from the Canadian border down to Point Sur, California, adding 15,910 square miles (41,207 square kilometers) of foraging areas, river mouths and migratory pathways.

Seattlepi.com reports that the total protected area now encompasses more than 18,000 square miles (46,620 square kilometers).

“These critically endangered orcas are finally getting the federal habitat protections they desperately need,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Conservation groups claim flaws in new federal right whale document

July 6, 2021 — Now that they have released a new biological opinion, federal fisheries managers are asking a federal court to end the ongoing litigation over the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.  

Last month, the federal government filed for a final judgement in the lawsuit filed against the National Marine Fisheries Service by several conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society.  

NMFS argued that, if there was an issue with the adequacy of the new biological opinion – a document from the service that states whether or not a federal action will jeopardize a species or its habitat – a new challenge would have to be filed.  

The conservation groups have pushed back against this legal logistics claim and have filed a motion of their own contending that there are several issues with the biological opinion. The new opinion does not address the issues the court found in the document’s previous iteration, which are central to the lawsuit in the first place.  

“NMFS cannot simply ignore the Court’s Opinions and Orders because it disagrees with the analysis or because compliance would be inconvenient,” the groups wrote in a recent filing. 

Last year, a federal judge found that the NMFS was in violation of the Endangered Species Act when it allowed the American lobster fishery to continue without an incidental take permit for North Atlantic right whales. Entanglements are considered one of the biggest threats to the species, which now has less than 400 individuals.  

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Whale activist attempts to intervene in right whale case

May 24, 2021 — With federal officials set to unveil new rules on the lobster fisheries at the end of the month, a well-known animal rights activist made a late attempt to try and stop the industry from being allowed to use vertical buoy ropes.

Richard “Max” Strahan tried to intervene at the beginning of the month in the federal right whale court case that holds the future of the lobster industry in its hands, but the activist’s attempt was rejected by a judge less than a week later.

Strahan filed his motion on May 8 and claimed that the only way the industry would stop using the ropes is by a court-ordered injunction. Without such an injunction, right whales would inevitably go extinct, he claimed.

He sought to prosecute the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency responsible for the regulations, and other lobster industry groups “for their acting in concert over the course of decades to repeatedly and deliberately engage in conduct prohibited by” the Endangered Species Act, he wrote.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

NMFS Publishes Finale Rule on Humpback Whales Pacific Ocean Habitat

April 26, 2021 — Pacific Ocean humpback whales gained more protection this week as the National Marine Fisheries Service designated more than 115,000 square nautical miles as critical habitat.

The final rule covers three threatened or endangered populations of humpbacks: the Western North Pacific distinct population segment (endangered), the Central America DPS (endangered), and the Mexico DPS (threatened).

Read the full story at Seafood News