On July 10th, The Humane Society of the United States and Ocean Conservancy announced a settlement with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in ongoing litigation concerning the entanglement of endangered whales in commercial fishing gear.
Under the settlement agreement submitted to the Court today, the agency will issue much-needed, and long overdue, protective regulations by October 1, 2007. New regulations have been needed since the 2003 entanglement death of a North Atlantic right whale in fishing gear in New England; an additional seven right whales, 14 humpback whales, and four fin whales have been seriously injured or killed by commercial fishing gear during the last four years that new rules have been languishing.
"This agreement is an important step forward in the ongoing battle to save three species of Atlantic whales that are teetering at the very brink of extinction," said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for The Humane Society of the United States. "Because there are fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales left in the wild, the issuance of new entanglement rules is absolutely critical."
The plaintiffs filed suit in February 2007 in the District of Columbia District Court, alleging that NMFS was violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by failing to protect three endangered whale species
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