<p>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) "has powerful tools to protect the North American right whale, but it is choosing not to use them," said biologist <a href="https://www.peer.org/author/kyla-bennett/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kyla Bennett,</a> science policy director for <a href="https://www.peer.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.</a> "In this case, NOAA is <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/watchdog-accuses-trumps-noaa-of-choosing-extinction-for-critically-threatened-right-whales-by-hiding-scientific-evidence/" target="_self">choosing extinction."</a></p><blockquote>At the height of the lobster season, right whales have to navigate through more than 900,000 ropes that connect surface buoys to traps on the seafloor.<br/></blockquote><p>In Trump's last days in office, NOAA published a draft <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/draft-biological-opinion-10-fishery-management-plans?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a72233cf-7af5-4bcb-b6d7-67275fa00b84" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">opinion</a> that said there would no jeopardy to the continued existence of right whales under the Endangered Species Act. The agency oversees catching lobsters off the north Atlantic coast which brings in <a href="http://www.asmfc.org/species/american-lobster" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hundreds of millions of dollars a year.</a></p><p>Trump regulators arrived at this conclusion based on the estimated impact of <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/31/2020-28775/taking-of-marine-mammals-incidental-to-commercial-fishing-operations-atlantic-large-whale-take" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">new regulations</a> that are still being written. Trump regulators claimed the proposed rule will reduce the risk of entanglement that kills or severely injures right whales by 60%.</p><p><a href="https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/paul-doremus-takes-over-as-acting-head-of-noaa-fisheries-after-chris-oliver-departs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Paul Doremus</a> is the acting head of NOAA Fisheries. Chris Oliver, the Trump appointee, resigned.<br/></p><p>The right whale got its name because it was the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/rtwhale.html" target="_blank">"right" whale</a> to hunt. Right whales swim close to shore, produce lots of whale oil and typically float after they are killed because they have so much blubber. Right whales were nearly extinct in 1935 when the League of Nations banned hunting them.</p><p>Today, right whales face extinction because they are being hit by boats and <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/03/12/latest-right-whale-entanglement-in-fishing-gear-shows-urgent-need-to-protect-species" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tangled in fishing gear,</a> mostly from lobster traps. At the height of the lobster season, right whales have to navigate through more than 900,000 ropes that connect surface buoys to traps on the seafloor.</p><p>Right whales were one of the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/North_Atlantic_right_whale/endangered_species_act_profile.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first animals</a> to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, to try to prevent the extinction of animals and plants, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1977/76-1701" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">whatever the cost.</a></p><p>The Supreme Court prevented the Tennessee Valley Authority from operating a dam that had <a href="https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power-system/hydroelectric/tellico" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">already been built</a> because the endangered <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/SnailDarter.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">snail darter</a> fish was discovered in the Little Tennessee River.</p><p>Lobstermen say proposed changes to try to prevent killing whales such as making <a href="https://www.talkingfish.org/2016/protecting-ocean-ecosystems/the-right-rope-for-right-whales" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ropes that break</a> if a whale becomes entangled will <a href="https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/life/state-leaders-fisherman-target-noaa-right-whale-proposals/97-f02efd02-50e7-45e9-bb36-8255c94abee9" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hurt them financially.</a> Maine Gov. <a href="https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Janet Mills</a> directed her state in 2019 to come up with an alternate plan to protect right whales.</p><p>"I will do everything I can as your governor to protect your rights and your livelihoods and defend Maine's lobster industry in the face of <a href="https://www.savingseafood.org/news/state-and-local/mills-comes-out-against-foolish-federal-regulations-to-protect-right-whales/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">absurd federal overreach,"</a> Mills wrote in July 2019.</p><p>Right whale <a href="https://www.andersoncabotcenterforoceanlife.org/blog/2020-narwc-report-card/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">deaths outpace births 3:2.</a> From 2017 to 2020, only 22 right whale calves were born. Many dead right whales <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/csp2.346" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">aren't found</a> so the numbers scientists are using for deaths are an undercount.</p><p>In mid-February, a <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/north-atlantic-right-whale-calf-stranded-dead-florida" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">dead right whale calf</a> was reported stranded along the Florida coast, the first observed right whale death in our nation's waters in 2021. The calf's mother was found three days later with injuries that suggested she had been struck by a boat.</p>
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