The Secretariat for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), agreed to move forward with the first step in a two-step process to investigate the US’s failure to uphold its environmental laws to protect North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements.
This decision was in response to Oceana’s filing the first-ever Submission on Enforcement Matters against the U.S. government under the USMCA. Oceana says the government has violated the USMCA by failing to enforce environmental laws to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, of which only around 330 remain.
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Under the USMCA, public stakeholders can hold any of the three countries accountable for not effectively enforcing their environmental laws, such as the United States’ Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. According to Oceana’s Submission on Enforcement Matters, the federal government is not fully complying with, implementing, or enforcing numerous environmental laws to protect North Atlantic right whales from their primary threats of deadly fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes.
The offending agencies and offices named in the letter include the National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Law Enforcement, NOAA Office of General Counsel, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Following the Secretariat’s decision, the second step is a vote by CEC Council Members to pursue the formal investigation. If approved, the investigation can take up to six months to complete.
If successful, Oceana’s action would shine a light on the federal government’s need to improve its management of threats to North Atlantic right whales and its failures to comply with its own environmental laws and the provisions of the USMCA. Should these failures be successfully challenged by Canada or Mexico, the United States could face trade restrictions.
There’s no time to waste; now that we have passed this first step, we encourage the CEC Council Members to vote yes to start the investigation at their July meeting to help save North Atlantic right whales from extinction — before it’s too late for these majestic whales
said Whitney Webber, campaign director at Oceana.
