Plans To Protect Pacific Humpback Whales From Deadly Entanglements Finally Put In Place Following Major Court Win
The National Marine Fisheries Service agreed today to establish a team to reduce whale entanglements in a federal fishery off the West Coast in a legal agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity.
In March, a federal court ruled in favor of the Center in a lawsuit challenging the Fisheries Service’s failure to protect endangered Pacific humpback whales from deadly entanglements in sablefish pot gear off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
“I’m relieved this agreement will give endangered humpbacks much-needed protections from entanglements, but the agency shouldn’t have been ignoring the whales to begin with,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center. “Entanglements are truly horrific for humpback whales, causing starvation, severe injuries and usually death. We still can’t trace most entanglements to their source, but this commitment from the agency will put fewer lethal obstacles in humpbacks’ way.”
The Center last year challenged an agency permit that horrifically allowed the fishery to entangle and kill endangered humpback whales without any measures to reduce that harm or a clear plan to implement measures in the near future.
In his March ruling, U.S. District Court Judge James Donato said the Service “cannot indefinitely delay developing a take reduction plan while continuing to authorize…permits for the incidental take of endangered and threatened humpback whales.”
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