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Some important news about #rightwhales: Today, NOAA filed a brief with a federal judge in Washington who ruled the agency had violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect the whales. In the brief, the agency revealed: 1/
There will be further delays in any new protections. It has been more than a year after @NOAA officials called for urgent action to save the critically endangered whales, whose population has likely dwindled to fewer than 400. 2/
Originally, the agency promised the new rules to protect right whales by the end of last year. Then that was pushed to March. Then it was delayed to July. Now, NOAA says the proposed rules won't come until "late summer or early fall," depending on a review by White House. 3/
They're also saying those rules are unlikely to take effect until May 2021 — more than two years after the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team nearly unanimously voted to reduce lobster lines in the Gulf of Maine by about 50 percent, among action then considered historic. 4/
NOAA also told the judge that it didn't expect to file its controversial biological opinion about the state of right whales until next year as well. 5/
Finally, the agency also said that it was considering taking action that was not recommended by the ALWTRT. Specifically, it said they're considering two fishing closures: one south of Nantucket; the other somewhere in the offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine. 6/
The judge could order the agency to take more aggressive action, as the plaintiffs @CLF and @Defenders are seeking. Any of those measures, however, are likely to spark lawsuits from lobstermen. End/
