Whale Entanglements on the West Coast Prompt Court Cases, Voluntary Measures

Thus far in 2017, an alarming number of North Atlantic right whales have been found dead, primarily in the Gulf of St. Lawrence but also in the waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Some of the whales showed evidence of entanglement in fishing gear, a fact that has caused the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans to suggest possible changes in crab and lobster fishing regulations in that country. Fishermen in the United States have already made a series of changes to their fishing gear since 1997 in order to reduce the possibility of entanglement.

But whale entanglement in fishing gear is not just a problem on the East Coast. Off California, Oregon and Washington, gray, humpback, fin and several other species of whales make regular migrations along the coast. The number of incidents of whales becoming entangled in fishing gear on the West Coast had remained steady at relatively low levels until 2014, when the annual entanglement rate began to spike. In 2016, at least 71 large whales became entangled in fishing gear off the three coastal states, 66 of them off the coast of California. It was the highest annual total since NOAA began keeping records in 1982 and broke the entanglement record for the third consecutive year.Many of those whales were caught up in Dungeness crab gear or gill nets used to fish for swordfish, according to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) data.

Alarmed by the increase, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife convened a California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group in 2015 to devise voluntary measures that crab fishermen could take to minimize the chances of snagging whales, measures such as minimizing the amount of line floating at the surface and reducing the number of buoys used to mark traps.For environmental organizations, however, voluntary actions were not enough. In June, 2017, the Center for Biological Diversity announced its intent to sue the California Department of Fish and Wildlife over the department’s failure to protect large whales under the Endangered Species Act.

The environmental organization stated that the suit was intended to force the department to make changes to management of the Dungeness crab fishery. “Only preventive reforms, such as reducing the number of crab lines in important feeding areas for whales, can save endangered humpback whales,” said Kristen Monsell, a staff attorney for the Center.Meanwhile, the Working Group continued its efforts to develop a Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) for whale entanglements in California waters. The goal of the assessment is to rank the risk of entanglement (high, medium, or low) based on factors such as prey distribution, gear concentration, and whale locations. A similar risk assessment model was created for the New England region by NMFS in 2011. The Working Group intends to use the RAMP approach specifically for humpback whales in the 2017-2018 Dungeness crab season, which begins in November.The Group has also experimented with different methods to make whales aware of line in the water, including painting line different colors.

Working Group members, however, recently recommended use of neutral buoyancy line that features less floating line on the surface of the water, where researchers suspect many entanglements take place.The Nature Conservancy began working with crab fishermen in California this year to reduce the possibility of whale entanglement in lost crab traps. The Lost Gear Recovery Project pays crab fishermen after the season has ended to go back to sea to fish for lost traps. Dungeness crab traps are expensive, about $300 for each trap, with line and buoys. This summer crab fishermen in six California ports went out to find lost traps. After the fisherman sights the trap’s buoy he or she takes a photo with a GPS-enabled cell phone, then hauls the trap.

The picture of the trap, its identifying tag, and its GPS location is sent to the trap’s owner, who can buy the trap back on land at a modest price. Nearly 450 lost traps were recovered this summer off Half Moon Bay, California.Another court case, however, looms in the future related to whales. Oceana, a national environmental organization, is suing NMFS for withdrawing rules agreed upon by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to protect marine species, some listed as endangered, caught as bycatch in the swordfish fishery.The rules, which were negotiated by the Council, would have instituted “hard caps” on the number of dead or injured animals that would be allowed in the fishery.

From 2004 to 2017, the swordfish industry discarded 61% of its catch, including fin, humpback and sperm whales; leatherback, loggerhead, olive ridley and green sea turtles; short-fin pilot whales; and bottlenose dolphins. The proposed “hard caps” would have shut down as many as 20 gill net boats for up to two seasons if too many whales, sea turtles or dolphins were caught in the nets. On June 12, the Trump administration directed NMFS to withdraw the proposed regulations; Oceana promptly sued the government in Los Angeles federal court.Court cases such as these typically move slowly but East Coast fishermen remain concerned about the impact these cases may have on future fisheries regulations.