Right Whale Protections Not Scientifically Based, D.C. Cir. Says

A Lobstermen’s industry group won its challenge to fishing restrictions that were implemented to protect the North Atlantic right whale in a Friday ruling by the D.C. Circuit, which held that they were based on unfounded assumptions.

“The service’s role as an expert is undermined, not furthered, when it distorts” scientific judgment “by indulging in worst-case scenarios and pessimistic assumptions to benefit a favored side,” Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit wrote for a three-judge panel. “It is not the province of a scientific consultant to pick whales over people.”

To address ...