NOAA Panel Reaches Broad Agreement on Measures to Help Protect the Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team reached nearly unanimous consensus on a plan to help reduce deaths and serious injuries to the endangered North Atlantic right whale by 60 percent. The team of federal and state officials, scientists/researchers, fishermen, and conservationists was convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries. CBI Senior Mediator Bennett Brooks and CONCUR Principal Scott McCreary facilitated the team’s four-day meeting that resulted in the development of the plan to reduce entanglements in fishing gear, the leading cause of injuries and deaths to the right whale. Regional lobster fishermen are most impacted by the agreement, as they agreed to remove as much as 50 percent of their vertical lines in some locations and transition to weaker ropes to reduce the threat of entanglement. 

Read further coverage of this agreement in the Providence Journal and the Boston Globe.