PRESS RELEASE: The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
today proposed to protect Puget Sound’s Southern Resident killer
whales under the federal Endangered Species Act, the nation’s
strongest conservation law. The orcas declined by 20% over five
years during the 1990s, and Endangered Species Act protection
ensures that NMFS will have the world’s best conservation tools
at its disposal as work begins to recover the whales from the
brink of extinction. "This is a victory for sound science, the
killer whales, and the people of the Pacific Northwest," said
Brent Plater, attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.
"However, if Congress continues on its path to gut the
Endangered Species Act, the best tools available to protect the
killer whale will be ripped right out of the hands of the
scientists and resource managers in the Pacific Northwest."
Today’s decision comes nearly two years after a U.S. District
Court found unlawful the Bush administration’s June 25, 2002
announcement that the killer whales