US Agency Studies Rare Whale Habitat Expansion Request

2022-07-15

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  • The U.S. government has agreed to a request from environmental groups to study increasingly important habitats for North Pacific right whales.
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  • The animals are among the rarest whales in the world.
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  • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries estimates there are about 30 North Pacific right whales left in the world.
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  • Centuries of hunting, ship strikes, and entrapment in fishing equipment have badly harmed the species.
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  • They have been listed as endangered since 1973.
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  • In 2008, NOAA declared two areas in the northern Pacific Ocean as critical habitats for the whales.
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  • One area is about 3,043 square kilometers in the Gulf of Alaska.
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  • The other is 91,841 square kilometers in the southeast Bering Sea.
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  • Two groups -- the Center for Biological Diversity and Save the North Pacific Right Whale - are asking the agency to increase the protected areas by connecting them.
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  • NOAA said in a statement that this would increase the Bering Sea boundary west and south.
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  • The proposal would also extend the critical habitat area off Alaska's Kodiak Island east to the Gulf of Alaska to include new feeding grounds.
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  • The Center for Biological Diversity said these feeding grounds for the whales were confirmed by new research.
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  • Kristin Carden is a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.
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  • She said in a statement, "Safeguarding the North Pacific right whale's habitat is crucial to protecting these magnificent animals."
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  • Carden added, "The threats to North Pacific right whales grow with each passing day."
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  • NOAA Fisheries said the extended habitat would include productive fishing areas and paths that many ships take.
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  • But it also would include places where the large whales have been seen and heard.
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  • The environmental groups said in their request to NOAA that physical and biological features in the proposed critical habitat require special considerations and protections.
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  • They may include placing speed limits on ships.
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  • Keven Campion is with the Save the North Pacific Right Whale group.
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  • He said the proposal is, "is a step in the right direction for making sure these animals get to exist on the planet."
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  • NOAA Fisheries is taking comments on the proposal until September.
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  • The agency must publish its decision within a year.
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  • I'm Jill Robbins.