Us National Marine Fisheries Service News

Environmental groups urged the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on Tuesday to establish a year-round speed limit for ships in areas of the Gulf of Mexico, home to one of the most endangered whales worldwide, to prevent deadly collisions.The Natural Resource Defense Council and other groups asked the NMFS in a petition to limit the speed of vessels that navigate Gulf waters off the Florida panhandle to 10 knots. The area is home to the endangered Gulf of Mexico whale of which only about 50 survive.

HRH The Duke of Rothesay addressed global fisheries leaders on sustainability. The world’s fisheries community gathered in Edinburgh today (Tuesday, 8 May) to discuss the future of sustainable fishing at the 6th World Fisheries Congress. Organised by The World Council of Fisheries Societies, the congress is being held at Edinburgh International Conference Centre and will address “Sustainable Fisheries in a Changing World”. The event draws leading international figures influential in driving debate and shaping global policy on fishing.

A federal judge in Boston on Friday cleared the way for rescuers to use a sedative to free a whale tangled in fishing line while fighting for its life off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. District Judge George O'Toole rejected a motion by an environmental activist who said a sedative would kill the 50-ton North Atlantic right whale -- one of an estimated 100 to 500 of the endangered species remaining. The Center for Coastal Studies, a rescue group from Provincetown, Mass., plans to sedate the whale on Saturday and remove green fishing line deeply embedded in the whale's upper jaw. The whale suffers from a massive infection and has been uncooperative with rescuers. Environmental activist Richard Max Strahan argued the sedative, untested on right whales, would kill the animal.