Environmental groups sued Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday for not protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales from being entangled in lobster traps and drowning off the U.S. coast.
“The law is clear: The federal government must act, and act immediately, to save the right whale from extinction,” said Jane Davenport, a senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, one of the groups filing Thursday’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues that that the National Marine Fisheries Service, one of the agencies that Ross oversees, has determined that lobster traps are leading to the deaths of North Atlantic right whales, but has refused to act under the standards of the Endangered Species Act.
“For example, NMFS’s Biological Opinion finds that the fishery will kill or seriously injure up to 3.25 right whales per year,” according to the lawsuit. “However, NMFS has not made the requisite negligible impact determination nor authorized the incidental take of right whales by the American lobster fishery. Nevertheless, NMFS continues to authorize operation of the fishery.”
The groups want the federal district court in the District of Columbia to order the fisheries service to take action to protect the whales by declaring that the administration is violating the endangered species law and that continued operation without assessing the harm to the whales, or requiring lobster fishermen to obtain take permits that allow for accidental kills, “is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion.”
The court also should declare that the agency is acting in “violation of its duty” under the law “to ensure that its actions do not jeopardize the continued existence of North Atlantic right whales,” the groups added.
The whale is listed as endangered under Endangered Species Act. The agency says a program was implemented under the Obama administration to help safeguard whales from entanglements.
The groups argue that even with the plan in place, whales are being killed and action is needed, specifically to control drownings from lobster traps.
“We don’t need more scientific research — we already know that fishing gear kills and injures whales at an unsustainable rate,” Davenport said. “It’s time to implement effective and innovative solutions to end this deadly problem.”
Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Humane Society were the groups that sued Ross Thursday.
Meanwhile, a notice was sent to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if the agency doesn’t take action to protect a number of species in North Carolina, from salamanders to threatened catfish.
The Center for Biological Diversity said it was giving Zinke 60 days notice of its intent to sue him under the Endangered Species Act for failing to make decision on whether the Neuse River Waterdog, a type of aquatic salamander, and the Carolina Madtom catfish that lives in North Carolina are threatened.
The group had petitioned the agency for protections for both species nearly eight years ago to be listed as threatened or endangered. The endangered species law gives environmental groups the right to file civil suits to hold the agency accountable if a determination has not been issued.
