Obama’s Commerce Secretary Pick No Environmental Champion
WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2009 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today named U.S. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican, to fill the slot of Commerce Secretary in his cabinet. If confirmed by the Senate, Gregg will join Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a total of three Republicans in [...]
Read More »Loggerhead Sea Turtle Deaths Prompt Lawsuit Threat
GAINESVILLE, Florida, January 23, 2009 (ENS) – A coalition of conservation groups has notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of its intent to file a lawsuit as early as March if the agency does not act immediately to protect imperiled sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. The action comes after fisheries observer data showed [...]
Read More »Florida Fish Expert Tries to Save the Last Sawfish
GAINESVILLE, Florida, December 8, 2008 (ENS) – “Today, it’s difficult to find a bar in South Florida that doesn’t have a sawfish ‘saw’ hanging on the wall,” says George Burgess, a University of Florida ichthyologist, or fish expert. Burgess serves as curator of the International Shark Attack File and also as keeper of the newly [...]
Read More »U.S. Flood Insurance Endangers Puget Sound Salmon, Orcas
SEATTLE, Washington, September 29, 2008 (ENS) – The National Flood Insurance Program is pushing orcas and several runs of salmon towards extinction, in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to a regulatory finding issued today by scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service. The National Flood Insurance Program is implemented by the Federal Emergency [...]
Read More »Conservationists Sue to Protect Beluga Whales of Cook Inlet
WASHINGTON, DC, June 7, 2008 (ENS) – Five conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration over what they claim is an illegal delay in listing the Cook Inlet beluga whale under the federal Endangered Species Act. The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC by the Center for Biological Diversity, Cook [...]
Read More »International Whaling Commission Makes Little Progress
SANTIAGO, Chile, July 1, 2008 (ENS) – The International Whaling Commission wound up its annual meeting here Friday without achieving new protections for whales or resolving the deep rifts that divide the member governments into pro-whaling and pro-conservation factions. The meeting centered on the future of the commission with only brief clashes between the two [...]
Read More »Court Order Sought to Protect Whales From Ship Collisions
WASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2008 (ENS) – Today, three conservation groups filed a lawsuit to force NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service to require ships to slow down to 10 knots in certain areas to avoid fatal collisions with endangered North Atlantic right whales. Hunted nearly to extinction by the early 20th century, the North Atlantic [...]
Read More »Two Eastern Tropical Pacific Dolphin Species Recovering
LA JOLLA, California, June 5, 2008 (ENS) – The dolphin-safe tuna labels on cans may have worked as they were intended to work. Scientists report that numbers of spinner dolphins and spotted dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean appear to be increasing after these dolphin species died by the tens of thousands in tuna [...]
Read More »Lawsuit Filed to Block Loud Oil Exploration in Arctic Seas
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, May 7, 2008 (ENS) – Alaska Natives and conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Anchorage Monday to stop noisy oil and gas exploration planned for this summer in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above the Arctic Circle. Seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent seismic surveying in the Arctic Ocean, [...]
Read More »Salmon Population Crash Shuts Down West Coast Fishery
SEATTLE, Washington, April 10, 2008 (ENS) – The Pacific Fishery Management Council today closed the commercial and sport chinook fisheries off the coast of California and most of Oregon and will allow only a 9,000 fishery for hatchery coho only off of Central Oregon. The council adopted the most restrictive salmon fishing quotes in the [...]
Read More »Court Orders U.S. Navy to Limit Sonar, Monitor for Whales
LOS ANGELES, California, January 3, 2008 (ENS) – A federal court in California has imposed a 12 nautical mile no-sonar exclusion zone along the California coast to protect whales and other marine mammals from mid-frequency sonar used by the U.S. Navy during training exercises. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California today [...]
Read More »Ribbon Seal of the Bering Sea Losing Icy Habitat
SAN FRANCISCO, California, December 26, 2007 (ENS) – The rare ribbon seal may be one of the first species to lose its habitat to global warming, says the Center for Biological Diversity. The ribbon seal is dependent on Arctic sea ice for survival – but that sea ice is shrinking fast. The group has filed [...]
Read More »Japan Suspends Humpback Whale Hunt
TOKYO, Japan, December 21, 2007 (ENS) – The government of Japan has agreed to suspend its plans to kill 50 humpback whales this year but only on condition that the International Whaling Commission, IWC, reinstates its original task of whale resource management. Dr. William Hogarth is director, National Marine Fisheries Service and chair of the [...]
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