Tag Archives: “incidental take statement”
Court Finds American Lobster Fishery Requires Incidental Take Statement for Impacts on North Atlantic Right Whale
As commercial fisheries across the United States continue to adjust operations in the face of new legal requirements, such as the shift from single-species to ecosystem-based management, one challenge in particular has dominated the courts: the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Recent court decisions have vacated commercial longline fishing permits in federal waters off the coast of California that could endanger the Pacific leatherback sea turtle and restored prohibitions on gillnet fishing gear in a known New England feeding ground for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. This trend continued on April 9, when a federal district court judge in Center for Biological Diversity,,,The American lobster fishery is managed cooperatively by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and NMFS, >click to read< 14:45
Federal Judge Finds Lobster Fishery Threatens Endangered Whales, Orders NMFS To Comply
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia said in a 20-page order Thursday a 2014 finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service the American lobster fishery would not jeopardize the North Atlantic right whale population – of which there are 400 left in the world – violated the Endangered Species Act, granting summary judgment in favor of several conservation groups. The 2014 Biological Opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to include an “incidental take statement,” rendering the opinion illegal under the Endangered Species Act, Boasberg found. >click to read< 07:49
