WDCS joins NGOs in legal case against US fisheries agency
WDCS joined this week with the Humane Society of the United States and Defenders of Wildlife to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for continuing to allow fisheries that it manages to injury and kill endangered whales, like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
“In an increasingly busy ocean, the survival and recovery of the North Atlantic right whale depends on protecting each individual from entanglement-related injuries and deaths,” said WDCS's Regina Asmutis-Silvia.
The lawsuit points out, “Each year, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and endangered humpback, fin, and sei whales become entangled in commercial fishing gear. In these incidents, fishing line wraps around whales’ heads, flippers, or tails, often impending basic movement, feeding, and reproduction, causing infection, and sometimes preventing the animals from resurfacing, resulting in drowning.”
It also notes that so far this year “there have been at least seven new right whale entanglements, ten new humpback entanglements, and at least two right whales have died from entanglement-related injuries.”
We shall let you know how the case progresses.
Our congratulations also this week to the UK's FCO. A WDCS and AWI team busted the sale of whale meat at Iceland's Keflavik International Airport. Prompt action by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to remind UK citizens that purchasing whale meat and attempting to import it into the UK and Europe would be an offence led to the Icelandic authorities withdrawing the whale products from the airport shop.
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