The Conservation Law Foundation, the New England environmental advocacy organization, today initiated a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service over NMFS s failure to protect the Northern Right Whale from extinction. The right whale is one of the rarest of all endangered species in the Western Hemisphere. Scientists estimate that fewer than 300 of these majestic marine mammals remain in their habitat off the east coast of the United States, and that the population is declining. CLF issued its 60-day notice letter on Friday, and it was expected to be in the hands of fishery administrators at NMFS and the U.S. Department of Commerce today.
Entanglement can lead to severe wounds, drowning or starvation.
Unless the fisheries service substantially improves its policies over the next two months, we ll file a federal lawsuit aimed at making certain that they enforce their regulations and as those regulations require take action to protect the whales from entanglement and death. Wilson said that, if federal officials do not sharply change course within the 60-day period, the next step for CLF would be to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston shortly after May 3 which falls at the beginning of the intensive fishing season for many species of commercial groundfish. CLF successfully won a preliminary injunction in that case and defended it on appeal. CLF s action charges that federal fisheries officials have failed to effectively implement requirements under the Endangered Species Act and the Fishery Conservation and Management Act to develop or promote fishing gear modifications that protect the whales from the risk of entanglement or other injury. The NMFS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, regulates fishing within federal waters, which extend from the limit of state jurisdiction, about three miles offshore, to 200 miles offshore.