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Judge says NMFS right whale plan still not enough

July 11, 2022 — The latest rules to reduce right whale deaths from lobster and crab gear still don’t go far enough in reducing potential mortality, according to a federal judge who has called for a new hearing to decide on remedies.

In an opinion issued Friday in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg ruled in favor of a key complaint from environmental groups who want the National Marine Fisheries Service to do more to reduce whale entanglements with vertical lines used in East Coast trap fisheries.

Now an extremely endangered species – with a population that plunged from around 481 animals in 2011 to an estimated 345 – the north Atlantic right whale is at risk from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. The gear issue has been subject to litigation in Boasberg’s court since 2018.

A new complaint brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation and Defenders of Wildlife alleged that NMFS’ own projections show that the right whale population would still lose animals to gear entanglement at a rate that would continue the path to extinction.

The plaintiff environmental groups, who have long pushed for more dramatic action from the government, praised Boasberg’s latest opinion.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association – named as a defendant along with the Department of Commerce and NMFS – called the ruling “a mixed bag” and took heart in Boasberg’s intention to seek remedies short of shutting the fishery.

The lobstermen’s association also noted the judge’s acknowledgement that NMFS could find “that projected take [of endangered whales] is in fact lower than originally estimated.”

Read the full story National Fisherman

Weak protection for vanishing whales violates law, judge says

July 11, 2022 — The federal government hasn’t done enough to protect a rare species of whale from lethal entanglement in lobster fishing gear, and new rules are needed to protect the species from extinction, a judge has ruled.

The government has violated both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled on Friday. The whales number less than 340 in the world and have been declining rapidly in population in recent years.

The ruling came after a group of environmental organizations sued the federal government with a complaint that it wasn’t doing enough to save whales from lobster gear. Boasberg’s ruling validates that claim, said Kristen Monsell, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the largest fishing trade group on the East Coast, said in a statement that it was still reviewing the ruling. The association also pointed to a section of Boasberg’s ruling that said the National Marine Fisheries Service “may find that other measures exist to reduce lethal take, or that projected take is in fact lower than originally estimated.” That renders the ruling “a mixed bag,” the association said.

The whales were once numerous, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era. Some scientists have said warming ocean temperatures are causing them to stray from protected areas in search of food, and that has left them more vulnerable to collisions and entanglement.

Read the full story at Associated Press

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