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| NMFS will regulate commercial fishing gear to safeguard whales. |
By Sharon Young
The Atlantic Ocean will soon be safer for endangered North Atlantic right, humpback and fin whales. In response to a lawsuit filed by The Humane Society of the United States and Ocean Conservancy, the National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed to issue much needed—and long overdue—protective regulations by Oct. 1, 2007.
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Whales and Fishing Gear |
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 Whales become entangled in fishing gear such as nets and ropes.
Gear may become wrapped around fins or flippers or lodged in the whale’s mouth.
Entanglements can result in either immediate drowning or make it difficult for a whale to move or feed.
Entanglement and collisions with ships are the leading threats to right whale survival. |
The HSUS and Ocean Conservancy filed suit in February 2007, alleging that NMFS was violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect the three endangered whale species from entanglement in commercial fishing gear.
After the 2002 entanglement death of a right whale in fishing gear of the coast of New England, NMFS admitted that its plan to reduce entanglements was a failure.
In June 2005, NMFS finally proposed regulations for commercial fisheries along the East Coast. However, the rules languished in bureaucracy for months, despite a legal obligation to finalize those regulations within 60 days after the end of the public comment period.
Between 2002 and today's settlement, seven right whales, 14 humpback whales and four fin whales were seriously injured or killed by commercial fishing gear.
The new rule is expected to require the use of modified fishing gear along the entire East Coast, from Florida to Maine.
NMFS' agreement to expedite the new rules is the second step the agency has taken to protect right whales this summer. After vigorous prodding by The HSUS and others, in June NMFS forbid gillnetting in the waters off Georgia and Florida—the only known birthing ground of North Atlantic right whales—during winter months, when mothers and their newborn calves are to be found there.
Both actions are critical to the ongoing battle to save these whales, which are teetering at the very brink of extinction.
Sharon Young is The HSUS' marine issues field director.
