Environmental Group’s Lawsuit Claims California’s Commercial Fishing Industry Kills Endangered Whales

An environmental group has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that endangered whales are at heightened risk of injury and death because of commercial net fishing off of the coast of California’s shores.

The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). This agency operates under the U.S. Commerce Department. Also named in the suit is the secretary of commerce, Gina Raimondo.

In their lawsuit, the environmental group outlines that populations of humpback whales, which have been identified as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Acts, are at greater risk of injury and death because of commercialized gill net fishing. The commercial nets are cast on and around the path of migrations as the whales travel north from Mexican and Central American waters. Currently, there are an estimated 1,500 whales in the Central American population and roughly 2,900 in the Mexican population.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the commercialized fisheries cast out “miles-long hanging nets” which are left in the waterways overnight. These nets are intended to catch species including bluefin tuna and swordfish. However, the group argues that threatened and endangered populations of whales are getting caught up in the nets.

The environmental group highlights that between 2014 and 2017, the number of whale entanglements increased sharply, with at least 53 entanglements occurring in 2016. The group also highlights that less than 20% of gill net sets were observed over the past two fishing seasons and that the rate of entanglement is much higher.

Catherine Kilduff, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, shares, “This struggling humpback whale population faces numerous threats, and these absurdly huge nets are one more hazard they can’t avoid.” She adds, “Whales off California are swimming through a treacherous gill net gauntlet, and we need to get the nets out of their habitat to give them a chance to recover. But the Fisheries Service is sitting on its hands while whales suffer.”

As part of its lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity is seeking to have the government intervene in a manner that would restrict when gill nets are used, specifically during the migration season when the whales travel north.

The Center for Biological Diversity highlights that California is the only state that continues to allow the use of these large-scale fishing nets. In 2020, a federal law that would have put an end to the use of wide-casting drift gill nets was vetoed by former President Donald Trump.