False Killer Whales to Receive Protection From Death in Hawaiian Longlines

Conservation Groups, Fisheries Service Agree on Deadline for 'Take-reduction' Plan

Press Release, October 17, 2012

Contact: David Henkin, Earthjustice, (808) 599-2436 x 6614, dhenkin@earthjustice.org
Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 366-2232 x 304, bcummings@biologicaldiversity.org
Todd Steiner, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (415) 488-7652, tsteiner@tirn.net

HONOLULU— The federal agency charged with protecting marine mammals settled a court case yesterday by pledging to finalize and implement protections for false killer whales by Nov. 30, 2012. False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), which are actually large dolphins, have suffered unsustainable levels of death and serious injury in Hawaii-based longline fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service struck the agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network, represented by Earthjustice. When approved by the federal district court, the settlement will wrap up a lawsuit the conservation groups brought in June 2012.

“For more than two years, the Fisheries Service has had sitting on its shelf a plan to protect Hawaii’s false killer whales that reflects the consensus of expert biologists, longline fishermen and conservation groups,” said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity, a member of the take-reduction team that the Fisheries Service convened in 2010. “With the fishery continuing to kill false killer whales at rates far beyond what they can sustain, it’s long past time for the agency to get that plan off the shelf, put it into action and start saving whales.”

The Service’s own data have shown for over a decade that Hawaii-based longline fishing kills false killer whales in Hawaiian waters at unsustainable rates...

Source: False Killer Whales to Receive Protection From Death in Hawaiian Longlines
Author: Center for Biological Diversity

Link: How Fishing Gear is Killing Whales in the North Atlantic