Monday, February 17, 2025

Conservation Groups Applaud US Court’s Decision Reinstating Right Whale Protections

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Conservation groups are applauding a US appeals court’s decision reinstating a 2024 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rule that protects critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from fishing gear entanglements — one of two major threats to the species’ survival and recovery.

In May 2024, the Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife as well as Whale and Dolphin Conservation appealed a federal district court decision rejecting a NMFS rule that annually closes 200 square miles/518 square kilometers of federal waters off the Massachusetts coast to lobster fishing during the three months when right whales are present in high numbers. The federal appeals court overturned the district court’s decision.

According to a joint statement from all three groups:

“Surrounding areas are already seasonally closed thanks to 2015 and 2021 rules issued by NMFS. The 2021 rule unintentionally left this wedge area open for fishing, creating a high-risk hotspot for entanglement as lobster gear piles up. NMFS temporarily closed the wedge by emergency rules in 2022 and 2023. The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association challenged the 2024 final rule that would close the wedge area every year between February and April.”

The district court judge cited the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, a must-pass spending bill that “deems” state and federal lobster fishery authorizations “in full compliance” with the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act through Dec. 31, 2028. That citation came in spite of a separate court ruling identifying NMFS’s legal violations of these laws when finalizing the 2021 rule, according to the groups.

The district court judge claimed that the 2022 emergency rule wasn’t “in place” when the Consolidated Appropriations Act was enacted in December 2022. However, the appeal court’s ruling confirms that NMFS finalized the 2024 rule consistent with that legislation.

With only 370 surviving animals, including fewer than 70 reproductively active females, the right whale is approaching extinction in large part due to two major threats: entanglements and vessel strikes.

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Executive Director Regina Asmutis-Silvia said:

“Just like school speed zones are always in place but are only in effect when school is in session, the 2022 emergency rule to seasonally protect right whales in the wedge off Massachusetts was also in place in December 2022. That was the intent of Congress when it referenced the emergency rule in the Consolidated Appropriations Act language. We are grateful that the appellate court acknowledged it.”

While Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, who argued the case for the conservation groups, said:

“The First Circuit’s decision represents a major victory for right whale conservation. The wedge closure affects only a handful of lobstermen for three months but protects right whales from the deadly fishing gear entanglements driving this species towards extinction.”

And Erica Fuller, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation, said:

“With seasonal closures on either side, these waters have become a gear parking lot littered with lines that threatened to entangle and harm right whales. We’re pleased the First Circuit recognized that the 2024 rule, annually closing risky waters to vertical lines in the spring, is consistent with congressional intent to fix an inadvertent gap in protection off the Massachusetts coast.”

John Liang
John Lianghttps://www.deeperblue.com/
John Liang is the News Editor at DeeperBlue.com. He first got the diving bug while in High School in Cairo, Egypt, where he earned his PADI Open Water Diver certification in the Red Sea off the Sinai Peninsula. Since then, John has dived in a volcanic lake in Guatemala, among white-tipped sharks off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, and other places including a pool in Las Vegas helping to break the world record for the largest underwater press conference.

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