Tag Archives: Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit
Maine Lobster Industry Faces off against Conservationists over Whale Protections
Maine lobster fishers recently won reprieve on new federal regulations to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whales. According to the Maine’s Lobstermen Association, The regulations could dramatically change lobster fishing practices, impacting fishers and Maine’s island communities who depend upon this resource. In 2023, a federal court ruled in favor of the Center and other groups, finding that NOAA had violated the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, and was not doing enough to reduce the lobster industry’s threat to right whales. But Maine’s community of lobster fishers are encouraged by the decision. “It gives us time to take a breath,” Steve Train, a commercial lobster fisher from Long Island, Maine, tells Food Tank. “Some people think it might be the end of it all, but I think most people see a little light now that we can work under.” “In the last 25 years, there has been one documented entanglement of a North Atlantic right whale in Maine fishing gear,” Train says. more, >>click to read<< 13:16
California: New regulations shut down Commercial Dungeness Crab season early
After a particularly hard start to the season, commercial Dungeness crab fisheries closed several weeks early on June 1. June 7 marked the start of the Lost and Abandoned Gear Program, which incentivizes retrieving and turning in leftover fishing gear. Both the closure and the gear removal program aim to protect migrating humpback whales and other marine life from getting tangled in fishing equipment. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) after a fishing season with 71 whale entanglements in 2016. New regulations imposed after the settlement allow officials to shut down the season when the risk of whale or leatherback sea turtle entanglements is high. >click to read< 17:37
Oregon group tries to dodge California’s fate by addressing whale entanglement issues early
Oregon’s commercial fishing industry is trying to get ahead of a problem that could put California in the middle of a lawsuit and has the potential to drastically change Dungeness crab fisheries on the West Coast. Last year, 71 whales tangled with U.S. fishing gear off the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington state, as well as neighboring countries — the highest annual total for the West Coast since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began keeping such records in 1982. Sixty-six of these incidents happened in California, many of them involving endangered humpback whales tangled in commercial crab gear. At the end of June, the Center for Biological Diversity announced its intent to sue the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which manages the fishery, for “causing the take of threatened and endangered whales and sea turtles.” click here to read the story 15:27
