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For Immediate Release, October 17, 2012 Contact: David Henkin, Earthjustice, (808) 599-2436 x 6614, dhenkin@earthjustice.org

Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity, (760) 366-2232 x 304, bcummings@biologicaldiversity.org

Todd Steiner, Turtle Island Restoration Network, (415) 488-7652, tsteiner@tirn.net False Killer Whales to Receive Protection From Death in Hawaiian Longlines Conservation Groups, Fisheries Service Agree on Deadline for 'Take-reduction' Plan HONOLULU— The federal agency charged with protecting marine mammals settled a court case yesterday by pledging to finalize and implement protections for false killer whales by Nov. 30, 2012. False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), which are actually large dolphins, have suffered unsustainable levels of death and serious injury in Hawaii-based longline fisheries. The National Marine Fisheries Service struck the agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network, represented by Earthjustice. When approved by the federal district court, the settlement will wrap up a lawsuit the conservation groups brought in June 2012. “For more than two years, the Fisheries Service has had sitting on its shelf a plan to protect Hawaii’s false killer whales that reflects the consensus of expert biologists, longline fishermen and conservation groups,” said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity, a member of the take-reduction team that the Fisheries Service convened in 2010. “With the fishery continuing to kill false killer whales at rates far beyond what they can sustain, it’s long past time for the agency to get that plan off the shelf, put it into action and start saving whales.” The Service’s own data have shown for over a decade that Hawaii-based longline fishing kills false killer whales in Hawaiian waters at unsustainable rates. The latest data, which the agency released in August 2012, reveal that each year longline fishing kills an average of more than 13 false killer whales from the “Hawaii Pelagic Stock” (animals found more than 22 nautical miles from the main Hawaiian Islands), nearly 50 percent more than what the agency has said that population can sustain. False killer whales in the “Hawaii Insular Stock” (animals found within 76 nautical miles of the main Hawaiian Islands) are being killed in Hawaii-based longlines at nearly twice the sustainable rate, contributing to a 9 percent decline in the population each year since 1989. Only about 150 of these animals remain, and the Fisheries Service has proposed to list them as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. “In Hawaiian waters and around the world, longline fisheries are indiscriminately killing untold numbers of marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and other sensitive species,” said Todd Steiner, executive director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network. “It is high time to end this slaughter. The Fisheries Service needs to issue rules that prioritize species protection over commercial exploitation.” Earthjustice went to court on behalf of the conservation groups in 2003 to force the government to classify the Hawaii longline fisheries as “Category I” due to their unsustainable “take” of false killer whales. The Fisheries Service made the classification in 2004, but failed to follow up on the listing by convening a team to develop a take-reduction plan, prompting a second round of litigation. In January 2010 the Fisheries Service finally established a take-reduction team for Hawaii’s false killer whales, which included scientists, conservationists, state and federal agencies and fishing-industry representatives. Within six months, the team achieved consensus on a draft take-reduction plan, but the Service then failed to finalize the plan by December 2011, as the Marine Mammal Protection Act required, triggering the latest lawsuit. “This case vividly illustrates why it is vital for citizens to be able to access the courts to hold government agencies accountable,” said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin. “It has taken three lawsuits over nearly a decade to compel the Fisheries Service finally to protect Hawaii’s false killer whales. Without citizen suits, the agency may well have dragged its feet until it was too late to save these unique marine mammals.” See photos of the devastating toll that Hawaii-based longline fishing inflicts on Hawaii’s false killer whales at http://earthjustice.org/fkw. ### Earthjustice is a nonprofit, public-interest, environmental law firm. The Mid-Pacific office opened in Honolulu in 1988 as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, and has represented dozens of environmental, native Hawaiian and community organizations. Earthjustice is the only non-profit environmental law firm in Hawaii and the Mid-Pacific, and does not charge clients for its services. For more information, visit www.earthjustice.org. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 450,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. For more information, visit www.biologicaldiversity.org Turtle Island Restoration Network is a nonprofit environmental organization committed to the study, protection, enhancement, conservation and preservation of the marine environment and the wildlife that lives within it. TIRN has approximately 60,000 members and supporters, many of whom reside in the state of Hawaii, and has offices in the United State and Costa Rica. For more information, visit www.SeaTurtles.org.