Activists sue federal government for images of dead orcas entangled by fishing boats

MIAMI — Activists sued the federal government Thursday to release images of dead orca whales, sea lions and other marine mammals entangled by commercial fishing boats off the U.S. West Coast.

The complaints were filed after the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration failed to fulfill multiple Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Oceana, a Washington-based conservation group, as part of its campaign to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of trawl fishing in federally managed waters.

''People have the right to know how commercial fisheries impact marine wildlife," Tara Brock, Oceana's Pacific legal director, said in a statement.

The lawsuits were filed Thursday in federal courts in Alaska and California by attorneys from San Francisco-based Earthjustice on behalf of Oceana.

At the heart of the legal challenge is NOAA's sometimes conflicting dual mandate: to promote fishing to its maximum sustainable level while also enforcing laws to protect marine mammals.

Oceana has long campaigned for tighter controls of trawl fishing. The group considers it one of the least sustainable fishing methods, in which large boats drag enormous nets on or near the ocean floor, collecting huge amounts of unintentional bycatch.

The lawsuit cites high and sometimes rising levels of animal entanglements in U.S. waters. During one four-month period alone last year, 10 orca whales were entangled in the Bering Sea off Alaska, according to NOAA data. All but one were dead.

Oceana, starting in 2021, submitted requests for public records to seek photos and video records of the mortalities taken by taxpayer-funded observers placed on vessels to assure compliance with federal conservation mandates.

NOAA refused to provide any of the records of marine mammal bycatch from the halibut fishery off California. In the case of Alaska, it released a few unredacted images but the majority were heavily redacted and pixelated, some to the point that it is impossible to identify the animal shown, Oceana said.

A spokesperson for NOAA said the agency can't comment on litigation.

But in the lawsuit Oceana states it was told by NOAA the release of unredacted images would violate provisions of the Magnuson Stevens Act, the main legislation regulating fisheries, requiring it to protect the identities of specific vessels and businesses.

Oceana, in the lawsuit, argues that the Magnuson Stevens Act ''is built on the principle that the public must be able to participate meaningfully in fisheries management" and that NOAA's denial of its records request unlawfully squashes scrutiny of commercial fishing practices.

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