PORTLAND, ME (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that new lobster fishing restrictions designed to conserve rare whales will be delayed until 2024 to give the government time to design them.
The ruling Thursday by a U.S. district judge came on the heels of his July ruling that new, stronger rules are needed to protect the North Atlantic right whale from extinction. The whales are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.
The judge previously ruled that fishing restrictions issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t go far enough to protect the whales.
He recently ruled that the agency must issue new rules by December 2024.
BY PATRICK WHITTLE, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.