Saving Seafood

First Circuit likely to save the whales despite lobstermen’s complaints

December 3, 2024 — An epic sea battle unfolded at the First Circuit Tuesday as Massachusetts fishermen tried to harpoon federal regulations that protect the North Atlantic right whale. But it appeared the judges were on the whales’ side and, as in “Moby Dick,” the fishermen may end up shipwrecked.

At issue is a federal rule that limits lobster and Jonah crab fisheries’ use of buoy lines, which can entangle and kill whales.

The fishermen’s lawyer, Daniel Cragg, told the judges that the rule resulted from Congress making a “drafting failure,” but the judges seemed incredulous.

“As between ‘Congress didn’t know what it was doing’ and ‘Congress did something that makes sense,’ it seems like making sense is the better option,” U.S. Circuit Judge Seth Aframe commented dryly during oral arguments.

For centuries right whales, which average 50 feet long and 50 to 75 tons, were targeted by whalers due to their docile nature and high blubber content. By 1937, when hunting them was banned worldwide, there were only about 100 left. The species rebounded a little, but in 1970 they were listed as endangered and the population today is estimated to be around 350.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

2023 was a better year for right whales, but 2024 offers a ‘sobering’ outlook

October 23, 2024 — The number of North Atlantic right whales increased slightly last year, offering a glimmer of positive news for the critically endangered population.

There were 372 right whales counted, according to new data from the New England Aquarium and the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist with the aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center, said the increase from 2023 reflects the birth of 12 whales. But it’s not a complete picture.

“The news for 2024 is much more sobering, with nine deaths, 13 injuries,” Hamilton said.

One right whale died from an entanglement in Maine fishing gear; three others were struck by boats. Another died from an unknown cause. And though 20 calves were born this year, a handful have already disappeared.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Wind power construction noise doesn’t destroy whale habitat, feds find

August 27, 2024 — The federal government issued a new “biological opinion” on the offshore wind power project off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, finding that pile-driving noise associated with Vineyard Wind 1 is likely to adversely affect, but not likely to jeopardize, the continued existence of whales, fish or sea turtles listed under the Endangered Species Act.

“It will have no effect on any designated critical habitat,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries said in a statement. “NOAA Fisheries does not anticipate serious injuries to or mortalities of any ESA listed whale including the North Atlantic right whale.” The agency said that with mitigation measures, “all effects to North Atlantic right whales will be limited to temporary behavioral disturbance.”

NOAA Fisheries said Friday it was issuing its new opinion to the “federal action agencies” including Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which approved the Vineyard Wind 1 Project in 2021 and oversees offshore wind power development in federal lease areas.

Read the full story at WBUR

Feds announce funding push for ropeless fishing gear that spares rare whales

August 16, 2024 — New efforts to convert some types of commercial fishing to ropeless gear that is safer for rare whales will be supported by millions of dollars in funding, federal authorities said.

Federal fishing managers are promoting the use of ropeless gear in the lobster and crab fishing industries because of the plight of North Atlantic right whales. The whales number less than 360, and they face existential threats from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with large ships.

The federal government is committing nearly $10 million to saving right whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Tuesday. Nearly $7 million of that will support the development of ropeless gear by providing funds to fishing industry members to assess and provide feedback on the technology, the agency said.

Lobster fishing is typically performed with traps on the ocean bottom that are connected to the surface via a vertical line. In ropeless fishing methods, fishermen use systems such an inflatable lift bag that brings the trap to the surface.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Interior defends Virginia offshore wind farm in court

May 7, 2024 — The Biden administration and the developer of a $9.8 billion wind farm off of Virginia Beach, Virginia, assured a federal court Friday that the project has all necessary approvals, amid claims that construction would harm the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The joint court filing from the Interior Department and Dominion Energy comes in response to a request to halt work on the massive Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, which is slated to include 176 turbines and is the largest project of its kind currently under development in the United States.

Dominion and Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management filed their response following an order from Judge Loren AliKhan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking clarity on whether NOAA Fisheries — which handles Endangered Species Act consultations for marine life — had approved mitigation plans to protect the vulnerable right whale.

Read the full story at E&E News

VIRGINIA: Dominion Energy says preliminary injunction request not delaying offshore wind construction

May 7, 2024 — The legal battle between Dominion Energy and three organizations opposed to its offshore wind project is heating up.

In March, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the Heartland Institute, and the National Legal and Policy Center sued Dominion Energy, alleging it hadn’t taken the necessary steps to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale and other marine life during construction. Dominion Energy called the lawsuit “meritless.”

In the latest development, the three organizations requested a preliminary injunction, asking a judge to stop offshore construction before it starts.

A preliminary injunction is a judge-issued order that demands a defendant stop an allegedly harmful activity while a lawsuit progresses. On Monday afternoon, Dominion Energy submitted its response to the preliminary injunction request, calling the move an “eleventh hour attempt” to stop the project.

CFACT president Craig Rucker disagrees. “We need an injunction and a proper study that looks at all the cumulative aspects of these different wind farms,” he said.

Read the full story at 13News Now

Dominion Energy says court challenge not delaying Virginia wind project

May 2, 2024 — A coalition of groups opposing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project was in a Washington, D.C. federal court this week, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop construction work in May. 

Conservative activist groups the Heartland Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) sued Dominion Energy and the Biden administration over federal permits for the planned 2.6 gigawatt project of 176 turbines.

The plaintiffs claim the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies “have not done the legally required research to determine the project won’t harm the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale,” according to a Heartland Institute statement.

U.S. District Court Judge Loren AliKhan called on lawyers for Dominion, the government and plaintiffs to file more papers and responses by May 9, before she rules on the groups’ request for a preliminary injunction.

Read the full story at WorkBoat

Proposed fund could help Maine lobstermen test new fishing gear

April 28, 2023 — State lawmakers are considering a measure that would create a new fund to help lobster fishermen test gear designed to reduce entanglement risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The proposed fund would set aside $1 million for each of the next two years. The money would be paid to lobster fishermen who test ropeless and other kinds of new fishing gear designed to minimize interactions with right whales.

The most recent federal spending bill set aside nearly $20 million for fishing gear.

But Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said it’s reasonable that lobstermen receive a stipend for the work itself.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Maine Lobstering Union drops part of lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries

August 25, 2022 — The Maine Lobstering Union is agreeing to drop part of its lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Services, where the federal agency is closing a 960-square-mile section of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishers.

Federal regulators said this section of ocean is prime habitat for North Atlantic right whales and argued blocking that part of the ocean off from buoy lines from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, 2023, would help reduce the risk posed to entanglements between lobster gear and whales.

Alfred C Frawley with McCloskey, Mina, Cunniff, and Frawley, LLC, said in an email the move was made as federal agencies add more regulations against the lobster industry.

“The MLU has taken the procedural step of agreeing to dismiss its case in Maine, which was largely mooted by the DC Court’s recent decision, in order to focus its resources on the ongoing litigation in DC and on ensuring that NMFS issues a new rule that both protects the North Atlantic right whale and ensures the sustainability of Maine’s lobster fishery,” Frawley said in an email to NEWS CENTER Maine.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Federal court rules fisheries officials didn’t do enough to protect right whales from lobster gear

July 8, 2022 — A federal court on Friday ruled in favor of environmental groups that had filed a lawsuit against the government and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association claiming federal fisheries officials had failed to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from potentially fatal entanglements in lobster fishing gear, records show.

A judge ruled that NOAA Fisheries had violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act when it issued a May 2021 biological opinion and a September 2021 final rule because officials had not done enough to reduce the lobster fishery’s threat to right whales, the plaintiffs in the suit said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Conservation Law Foundation, and Defenders of Wildlife.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe