The giant manta ray, with a wingspan that can reach 29 feet, has suffered population declines of up to 95 percent in some places due to commercial fishing. Giant manta rays and oceanic whitetip sharks will keep declining if our government doesn't do its moral and legal duty to protect them.” “The Trump administration has to follow through by regulating the deadly Atlantic longline and gillnet fisheries. “These sharks and rays won federal protection, but they're still being slaughtered by reckless fishing practices,” said Catherine Kilduff, a Center attorney. The agency has not completed these consultations on the pelagic longline (which targets tuna, swordfish and other species), shark drift gillnet or shark bottom longline fisheries - all of which harm oceanic whitetip sharks and giant manta rays and have contributed to the species' declines. The Endangered Species Act requires consultations to ensure that federal actions do not unduly harm protected species. Today's notice letter to the Fisheries Service says officials have not completed required consultations when authorizing fisheries managed under the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan. The agency listed the shark and ray as threatened last year, triggering the agency's obligation to consider conservation measures to protect the species from federal actions when authorizing U.S. fishermen in Atlantic fisheries.ĭefenders petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the oceanic whitetip shark and giant manta ray under the Endangered Species Act in 2015. On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice today filed a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for failing to protect oceanic whitetip sharks and giant manta rays from being killed by longlines and huge nets used by U.S. Gillnets have been called “walls of death” for the harm they do to a variety of marine species. Whitetip sharks are often swept up as bycatch by U.S.
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