Will 2019 Be the Year We Finally Save Whales From Deadly Entanglements?
Reports of West Coast entanglements rose again in 2018 after dipping from record-breaking 2016
Reports that West Coast whale entanglements increased in 2018 are sad but not surprising. These deadly, illegal entanglements will continue until California gets serious about addressing the problem.
[Update: 2019 was indeed the year we saved these whales, more details here and here.]
Over the past four years, way too many whales along the West Coast have been entangled and injured in commercial crabbing gear, while wildlife officials and crabbers talked about addressing this growing problem.
But the time for talk is over. California has to take meaningful action right away to prevent the deadly entanglements of endangered whales and sea turtles. At least 45 whales were found entangled in 2018 — more than quadruple the annual average before 2014.
We alerted the state that it was violating federal environmental laws when we discovered whale-entanglement numbers starting to skyrocket in 2014, the first of three consecutive record-breaking years. This prompted a working group that tinkered with voluntary measures for years. Last year the Center for Biological Diversity, where I work, decided it was past time for action, and we sued the state.
Entanglements can be deadly for these poor whales. Heavy crab traps on the seafloor connect to surface buoys with long, vertical ropes. When a rope gets caught on a passing whale’s mouth, fins or tail, it tightens and cuts into the animal’s flesh, sapping strength and often leading to drowning or permanent injuries.
There are common-sense reforms that can curtail these needless deaths, including temporarily suspending crabbing in areas where whales gather, like Monterey Bay, a whale entanglement hot spot in recent years. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, however, has yet to adopt them.
Instead, in late November, the department announced it will develop an entanglement conservation plan and seek federal Endangered Species Act permits for the endangered whale and sea turtles being injured by the commercial Dungeness crab fishery that it regulates.
That’s a welcome move, but the question remains: What will the department do to protect whales in the meantime?
Writing and approving the plan could take several years, and we need bold actions now, including testing and use of ropeless crabbing gear. As last year’s rising entanglement numbers illustrate, endangered whales and sea turtles will continue to become injured in fishing lines until we adopt new policies to prevent entanglements.
It’s an urgent situation that could soon get even worse. Many ocean scientists are predicting the return of warm, El Niño conditions in the Pacific starting this winter and into the spring — similar to 2016, when reported West Coast whale entanglements peaked at 71.
Such marine heat waves generally bring whales closer to shore, where their prey are abundant, and where the crabbers set their traps. So with the current commercial crab season lasting through June, the department needs an immediate plan for preventing yet more whales from getting tangled up in crabbing gear.
Our lawsuit against the department has a court hearing Jan. 25. It’s time for this department to do the right thing and implement a plan for preventing entanglements now.
When its director, Charlton Bonham, announced his new plan to seek a federal take permit for the crab fishery’s entanglement problem, he wrote, “Even one whale or turtle entanglement is too many.”
He needs to take the actions that match his words.
Kristen Monsell is the Oceans Legal Director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
