Guide to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan: An Evolving Plan to Reduce the Risk to North Atlantic Large Whales (Right, Humpback and Fin) Posed by Commercial Trap/Pot and Gillnet Fishing Gear in the U.S. Atlantic Ocean.

摘要

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP) is a program to reduce the risk of serious injury to or mortality of large whales due to incidental entanglement in U.S. commercial fishing gear. The plan is required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and has been developed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The ALWTRP focuses on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but is also intended to reduce entanglements of endangered humpback and fin whales and to benefit non-endangered minke whales. Under the protection of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Federal agencies are required to ensure that permitted activities (such as fishing) do not jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species. Since the ALWTRP measures are intended to reduce entanglements of right, humpback, and fin whales in fishing gear, these measures also help to avoid the likelihood that Federally permitted fishing activities will cause harm to or jeopardize the continued existence of these whales.