Center for Biological Diversity Archives - Page 3 of 10

WASHINGTON: Seattle Harbor Expansion Would Push Out Endangered Whales, Conservation Group Says

March 5, 2021 — The Trump administration rushed through a project to expand Seattle Harbor for ultra-large container ships that would further threaten endangered Southern Resident killer whales, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Only 75 Southern Resident killer whales swim the Salish Sea — a number that has increased since three baby whales were born in the relatively quiet waters of the pandemic. Noise from whale watching boats and ships headed to and from ports across the Pacific will increase when pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Added to that is a new worry: the underwater cacophony of ultra-large container ships that would visit Seattle Harbor, in the heart of the whales’ home waters, and the release of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of toxic material dredged during the harbor project.

The three pods, or family lines, of Southern Residents took a major hit in the late 1960s when aquariums stole 45 Southern Residents from their families, and killed another 14 in the process. Only one of the whales taken during that time survives today: a 53-year-old whale who lives at the Miami Seaquarium. The Seaquarium calls her Lolita, while supporters who want her returned to a protected cove of the Salish Sea call her Tokitae.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Little time left to save the North Atlantic right whale

February 26, 2021 — After years of petitioning the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect North Atlantic right whales, conservation groups recently filed an emergency lawsuit asking the US government to expand protections for the highly endangered species.

Right whales were once hunted to near extinction, but when hunting was banned in 1935, the population of right whales began to slowly bounce back. Today, the population is again in free fall. Ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are killing more right whales each year than are being born. Less than 400 of these giant marine mammals remain, making them a critically endangered species.

The National Marine Fisheries Service currently has a rule in place that requires vessels over 65 feet long to slow down in certain areas at certain times of the year to prevent right whales from getting run over and killed by ships. In 2012, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand the scope of that rule so that it applies in more areas and to smaller vessels.

“The agency has never responded to our petition, despite a host of evidence indicating that the rule, while it’s effective in the places and times that it applies, is not effective enough,” says Kristen Monsell, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Read the full story at The World

BRENNAN STRONG: Maine lobstermen and fisheries regulators need more time to assess new whale rules

February 19, 2021 — I am a 22-year-old commercial lobsterman. I got my lobster license at 11 years old and I have poured my heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into building my business ever since. I am writing out of deep concern for the future of the lobster fishery because of the newly proposed right whale regulations.

For over 100 years, this industry has been the role model for a sustainable and honorable fishery. We throw back more lobsters than we keep every day, as well as remove litter consistently from the bays where we work. This industry has given thousands of people opportunities to work, dream, and contribute to coastal communities. Lobstering is a way of life and is vital for Maine and its people.

However, the Center for Biological Diversity v. Ross court ruling from Judge James Boasberg requiring the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to have new right whale regulations and a new biological opinion by May 31, 2021 is dangerously premature. The problem is that May 31 is too soon to properly evaluate the scientific and real-life factors at play. The entanglement statistics contain many assumptions and more time is needed to make sure everything is fact-based.

The significant threats to right whales have been and continue to be vessel strikes and entanglement with Canadian fishing gear, not Maine lobster gear. Those threats are not discussed thoroughly in the draft biological opinion, which states:

“NMFS is conducting a review of our vessel strike reduction measures … as it pertains to right whale management. … This review is expected to be released soon.”

Read the full opinion piece at the Bangor Daily News

Lawsuit claims Gulf of Mexico drilling permits violate Endangered Species Act

October 23, 2020 — Environmental groups went to federal court Oct. 21 with a lawsuit claiming the Trump administration is violating the Endangered Species Act by an inadequate interagency consultation on oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The San Francisco-based legal foundation Earthjustice filed the action on behalf of the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The lawsuit attacks an assessment of the hazards that offshore oil and gas drilling and production pose to endangered marine species, issued in March by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In an earlier 2018 lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida, Earthjustice and other groups complained NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had unreasonably delayed developing a new biological opinion – or “BiOp” in the argot of federal bureaucracy – to evaluate impacts as required by the Endangered Species Act.

The law requires certification that government actions – such as permitting offshore drilling – won’t harm endangered species. The last biological opinion was issued in 2007; BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill in 2010, with its sweeping environmental impacts and losses of marine life, triggered the process for a reassessment of the dangers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Judge orders new fisheries impact analysis on right whales, decides not to close fishery

September 10, 2020 — United States District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., handed down his remedy Aug. 19 to the National Marine Fisheries Services, which he ruled last spring had violated the Endangered Species Act in licensing the fisheries in the northeastern U.S.

He gave the NMFS until May 31, 2021, to conduct a new biological opinion on the fishing industry’s impacts on the endangered right whale species and measures to decrease whale deaths caused by the industry, vacating the previous biological opinion.

Earlier this year he found that the NMFS had failed to file an incidental take report in 2014 after discovering the vertical lines used in the fishing industry could be responsible for up to three whale deaths a year, which is more than the species can sustain, according to NMFS’ own calculations.

Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society of the United States, the plaintiffs in the case, requested over 5,000 square miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where large numbers of whales congregate, be closed to vertical line fishing.

Intervenors in the case argued that closing off that area to fishing would place more nets outside its boundaries, creating a situation where lines are closer together, increasing entanglement risks for whales trying to reach the area considered for fishing closure.

The judge decided against the plaintiffs’ request because there is no legal precedent for such an action, he said in his opinion. He decided it would be too detrimental to the New England fishing industry that is already struggling because of the coronavirus.

Read the full story at Village Soup

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 25, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service must designate protected critical habitats for green sea turtles by June 30, 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement this week.

The agencies will likely consider proposing protections for beaches where green turtles nest in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as offshore oceanic habitat in the Southeast and on the West Coast, according to the agreement. These critical habitats designations don’t prohibit development, but they require that any project that’s permitted by a federal agency must minimize harm to these special areas.

“We’re thrilled that these imperiled creatures will finally get the habitat protections required by the Endangered Species Act,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Green sea turtle recovery has come a long way, but the fight’s not over yet.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Judge won’t close offshore lobster area; grants NMFS more time for whale analysis

August 21, 2020 — A federal judge granted the National Marine Fisheries Service a May 31, 2021 deadline to produce new biological opinion on the Northeast lobster fishery and northern right whale, following up on his earlier ruling that the agency had violated the Endangered Species Act with a 2014 opinion.

But in his new decision issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg granted NMFS the nine-month grace period it had requested, rather than a Jan. 31, 2021 deadline sought by environmental groups that had sued the agency.

Boasberg also decided against ordering an immediate halt to the use of vertical lines for lobster gear in an area traversed by right whales south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket – a ‘Southern New England Restricted Area,’ about the size of Connecticut, proposed by plaintiffs including the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation Law Foundation.

In a 31-page memorandum of opinion, the District of Columbia judge laid out his reasoning, and recognized the difficulties NMFS faces in resolving the right whale issues. But he included a stern warning to the agency and to make progress.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Habitats for endangered green sea turtles will be federally protected in Florida

August 21, 2020 — Endangered green sea turtles will have some of their nesting beaches in Florida protected by federal agencies under a new legal agreement with conservation groups.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

California Takes Step to Protect Leatherback Sea Turtles

August 20, 2020 — California took a step Wednesday toward placing Pacific leatherback sea turtles under state protection as the species faces potential extinction from human-caused problems.

The state Fish and Game Commission voted 5-0 for the species to become a candidate for threatened or endangered status under California’s Endangered Species Act.

That triggers a year-long review before the commission makes a final decision. The turtle will receive state protection during that time.

Conservation groups applauded the move.

“Leatherbacks have traveled across the Pacific for millions of years. California has now committed to ensuring they survive reckless fishing practices and other threats to their existence,” said Catherine Kilduff, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for the action along with the Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Read the full story at U.S. News

Make ship speed limits mandatory to protect right whales, advocates say

August 11, 2020 — Vessel speed limits must be mandatory offshore when endangered northern right whales are present, because ship strikes are a leading cause of deaths in the whale population now down to only around 400 animals, ocean conservation groups say in an appeal to the U.S. government.

“The unprecedented number of recent deaths and serious injuries warrants the agency acting quickly to ensure that this endangered species receives the protections necessary to reduce the risk of vessel strikes and ensure its continued existence throughout its range,” the groups state in a petition submitted Aug 6 to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Chris Oliver, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The time has come for NMFS to follow through on the promises it made in 2008 to expand the ship speed rule based on the best available scientific data to address the urgent crisis the right whale faces,” according to the groups Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund.

“While the species faces a plethora of threats, collisions with marine vessels remains one of the two primary threats inhibiting the species’ recovery and threatening its continued existence,” according to the groups. “Since 2017, just over half of the known or suspected causes of mortality for the species have been attributed to vessel strikes, closely followed by incidental entanglements in fishing gear.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman