ASSOCIATED PRESS • November 12, 2021
A federal court is allowing a team of environmental groups to continue with a lawsuit against the U.S. government that seeks to create stronger rules to protect rare whales from collisions with ships. The environmental groups want to protect North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The whales numbered only 366 in 2019, and its population fell to 336 in 2020, a group of scientists said last month. The petitioners want the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand areas and times in which a speed limit rule that protects the whales applies. They’ve also called for the government to make speed rules mandatory and apply them to both small and large vessels. The administration of President Joe Biden has pushed back against the suit and sought to have it dismissed.