Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears

By PATRICK WHITTLE BOOTHBAY HARBOR Maine AP Republican lawmakers are targeting one of the U S s longest standing pieces of environmental act credited with helping save rare whales from extinction Related Articles Federal employees in mental vitality and ailment control were among targets in weekend firings Latino leaders condemn ICE over incidents in Chicago including driver s fatal shooting New York Times AP Newsmax among news outlets who say they won t sign new Pentagon rules California governor signs controversial bill letting relatives care for kids if parents are deported Venezuela says US navy raided a tuna boat in the Caribbean as tensions rise Conservative leaders feel they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act enacted in to protect whales seals polar bears and other sea animals The law also places restrictions on commercial fishermen shippers and other marine industries A GOP-led bill in the works has promotion from fishermen in Maine who say the law makes lobster fishing more formidable lobbyists for big-money species such as tuna in Hawaii and crab in Alaska and marine manufacturers who see the law as antiquated Conservation groups adamantly oppose the changes and say weakening the law will erase years of hard-won gains for jeopardized species such as the vanishing North Atlantic right whale of which there are less than and is vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear Here s what to know about the protection act and the proposed changes Why does the s law still matter The Marine Mammal Protection Act is major because it s one of our bedrock laws that help us to base conservation measures on the best available science announced Kathleen Collins senior marine campaign manager with International Fund for Animal Welfare Species on the brink of extinction have been brought back It was enacted the year before the Endangered Species Act at a time when the movement to save whales from extinction was growing Scientist Roger Payne had discovered that whales could sing in the late s and their voices soon appeared on record albums and throughout popular custom Common dolphins swim off the Maine coast on Oct AP Photo Patrick Whittle FILE A seagull flies by a Southern Right Whale calf in the El Doradillo protected area near Puerto Madryn Argentina Oct AP Photo Victor R Caivano File A gray seal surveys its surroundings Tuesday Sept off the coast of Brunswick Maine AP Photo Robert F Bukaty Show Caption of Common dolphins swim off the Maine coast on Oct AP Photo Patrick Whittle Expand The law protects all marine mammals and prohibits capturing or killing them in U S waters or by U S citizens on the high seas It allowed for preventative measures to stop commercial fishing ships and other businesses from accidentally harming animals such as whales and seals The animals can be harmed by entanglement in fishing gear collisions with ships and other hazards at sea The law also prevents the hunting of marine mammals including polar bears with exceptions for Indigenous groups Specific of those animals can be legally hunted in other countries Changes to oil and gas operations and whale safety Republican Rep Nick Begich of Alaska a state with a large fishing industry submitted a bill draft this summer that would roll back aspects of the law The bill says the act has unduly and unnecessarily constrained administration tribes and the regulated area since its inception The proposal states that it would make changes such as lowering population goals for marine mammals from maximum productivity to the level needed to encouragement continued survival It would also ease rules on what constitutes harm to marine mammals AP illustration Marshall Ritzel For example the law right now prevents harassment of sea mammals such as whales and defines harassment as programs that have the foreseen to injure a marine mammal The proposed changes would limit the definition to only programs that genuinely injure the animals That change could have major implications for industries such as oil and gas exploration where rare whales live That poses an existential threat to the Rice s whale which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico conservationists declared And the proposal takes specific aim at the North Atlantic right whale protections with a clause that would delay rules designed to protect that declining whale population until Begich and his staff did not return calls for comment on the bill and his staff declined to provide an update about where it stands in Congress Begich has explained he wants a bill that protects marine mammals and also works for the people who live and work alongside them especially in Alaska Fishing groups want restrictions loosened A coalition of fishing groups from both coasts has come out in advocacy of the proposed changes Several of the same groups lauded a previous effort by the Trump administration to reduce regulatory burdens on commercial fishing The groups disclosed in a July letter to House members that they feel Begich s changes reflect a positive and necessary step for American fisheries success Restrictions imposed on lobster fishermen of Maine are designed to protect the right whale but they often provide little protection for the animals while limiting one of America s signature fisheries Virginia Olsen political director of the Maine Lobstering Union stated The restrictions stipulate where lobstermen can fish and what kinds of gear they can use The whales are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in heavy fishing rope Gathering more accurate content about right whales while revising the original law would help protect the animals Olsen noted We do not want to see marine mammals harmed we need a healthy vibrant ocean and a plentiful marine habitat to continue Maine s heritage fishery Olsen stated A harbor seal rests on a submerged ledge near fishermen harvesting herring Monday Oct off Portland Maine AP Photo Robert F Bukaty Various members of other maritime industries have also called on Congress to update the law The National Marine Manufacturers Association disclosed in a comment that the rules have not kept pace with advancements in the marine industry making innovation in the business laborious Environmentalists fight back Numerous environmental groups have vowed to fight to save the protection act They characterized the proposed changes as part of the Trump administration s assault on environmental protections The act was instrumental in protecting the humpback whale one of the species the bulk beloved by whale watchers announced Gib Brogan senior campaign director with Oceana Along with other sea mammals humpbacks would be in jeopardy without it he explained The Marine Mammal Protection Act is flexible It works It s effective We don t need to overhaul this law at this point Brogan announced What does this mean for seafood imports The original law makes it illegal to import marine mammal products without a permit and allows the U S to impose import prohibitions on seafood products from foreign fisheries that don t meet U S standards The import embargoes are a major sticking point because they punish American businesses noted Gavin Gibbons chief strategy officer of the National Fisheries Institute a Virginia-based seafood industry deal group It s critical to source seafood globally to be able to meet American demand for seafood he explained The National Fisheries Institute and a coalition of industry groups sued the federal administration Thursday over what they described as unlawful implementation of the protection act Gibbons reported the groups don t oppose the act but want to see it responsibly implemented Our fisheries are well regulated and appropriately fished to their maximum sustainable yield Gibbons noted The men and women who work our waters are iconic and responsible They can t be expected to just fish more here to make up a deficit while jeopardizing the sustainability they ve worked so hard to maintain Particular environmental groups explained the Republican lawmakers proposed changes could weaken American seafood competitiveness by allowing imports from poorly regulated foreign fisheries This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation The AP is solely responsible for all content