Whales win in federal fight over sablefish net permit
A federal judge has awarded summary judgment to environmental advocates over the National Marine Fisheries Service’s handling of endangered Pacific humpback whales that get tangled in fishing gear off the Pacific coast. U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the feds in 2022 over a permit that authorized the incidental taking of endangered humpback whales in a sablefish fishery without also putting plans into place to reduce the number of entanglements. The organization said the permit was unlawful because the service “did not first ensure that a take reduction plan for the whales had been developed or was being developed, as required.” >click to read< 11:05
Jeez, the feds are busy on the East coast giving carte blanche to Big Wind ’cause all the unprecedented seismic testing hasn’t been proven to have anything to do with the recent unprecedented whale mortalities. And on the West coast we gotta protect those whales from the fishermen no matter what. Kind of sort of seems like there might be some schizophrenia going on there, doesn’t it?
It’s amazing, isn’t it? The BOEN, NOAA, Interior getting ready to do the same thing out there with offshore wind farms, the serial killers with a free pass!