NOAA Fisheries has agreed to establish a team that will focus on reducing the number of Pacific humpback whale entanglements in the sablefish fishery as part of a new legal agreement.
The agreement is in response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that works to establish federal protections for wildlife. Last year, the center sued NOAA Fisheries, arguing that its permit for the sablefish fishery allowed the entanglement and death of endangered humpback whales without any measures or plans to reduce harm.
Approximately one humpback whale death or serious injury can be attributed to the sablefish fishery every year, according to NOAA Fisheries, although there are other entanglements where it’s not clear who the culprit was. Around 25 humpback whales are entangled every year along the West Coast, with many of them going unattributed…