Marine Fisheries Service Faces Pacific Right Whale Suit

TUCSON, Arizona, May 17, 2004 (ENS) - The Center for Biological Diversity intends to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for its alleged failure to protect the North Pacific right whale under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Last week the organization filed a 60 day notice of its intent to file a lawsuit.

The federal agency said in February 2002 that it would conduct several studies and initiate recovery programs for the whale, in lieu of the Center's request that the agency protect the species' habitat immediately.

But the conservation group says that as yet none of the actions or studies have been completed, the whale's habitat remains unprotected, and the limited amount of funding that was dedicated to look for the species has been spent elsewhere.

The Center's suit will force the Fisheries Service to protect the species' habitat by a date certain and encourage the recovery of the species.

"Instead of following through on its promises, the Service has actually stopped looking for this species and actively thwarted research efforts that aim to better understand the whales," said Brent Plater, an attorney for the Center.

"Our country runs the risk of becoming the only nation to allow a great whale species to go extinct," Plater said, "and it is happening on the Fishery Service's watch."

Many biologists consider the North Pacific Right Whale the most imperiled whale on Earth. The slow moving whales were hunted to the brink of extinction - as few as 100 may still remain in the wild.

A small population of right whales was first sighted in U.S. waters within a portion of the Southeastern Bering Sea in the 1990s and scientists have confirmed that the group returns to the area each summer.

In 2000, the Center petitioned the Fisheries Service to designate that area as critical habitat for the species, a level of protection that the federal wildlife agency has determined is "a necessary component of any effort to conserve and recover this species."

"The fishery service has failed to take the most basic steps to protect this population," said Eric Glitzenstein, an attorney with the law firm of Meyer & Glitzenstein, which submitted the notice of violations of the ESA on behalf of the Center.

"The Fishery Service's original justification for its failure to act was a classic example of arbitrary and capricious decisionmaking, and the ongoing failure to own up to its promises has made matters all the worse."