NOAA Fails Right Whale

More: NOAA has apparently stopped an internal inquiry into the politicization of the agency's right whale protection activities. NOAA launched an inquiry in March after media reports of weakening protection for the critically endangered whale by the agency's "political team". According to the report in Roll Call the scientific conclusion that seismic blasting in the whales' calving area would further endanger the already rare whale was altered for political considerations since the finding conflicted with the regime's effort to open up the Atlantic seaboard to oil exploration.  The incident is reminiscent to the Heel altering an official NOAA weather map showing hurricane Dorian's storm track with a "Sharpie"® marker.

A watchdog group which requested an investigation was informed by the agency that an inquiry begun in April was being halted because of litigation against NOAA, It claimed litigation overlapped the internal agency inquiry.   Once considered in the top ranks of federal scientific organizations, NOAA's reputation for scientific integrity has suffered under the Heel.  The right whale it is supposed to protect is on the edge of extinction only about 400 individuals still inhabit the eastern seaboard, subjected to entanglement and collision.

{16.07.20} IUCN, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, placed the North Atlantic right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, on the list of critically endangered species last week.  The whale's eminent extinction is an entirely preventable event, but the regime does not care about other creatures that share this planet with us, just as it does not care about the hundreds of thousands sick and dying from a novel virus. Only about 400 right whales remain with fewer than 250 breeding age animals alive.  PEERS, the environmental organization for public employees, says that NOAA has tried to put a positive spin on the declining numbers instead of taking common sense precautions to protect the marine mammal from deadly entanglements in discarded fishing gear and collisions with ships speeding through their foraging and breeding zones.

Emails from early 2020 show career officials discussing the disappearance and presumed death of "Dragon", a breeding female, which the agency was loath to report to the public. It regularly reports sightings of calves, which stand little chance of survival without their mothers. A watchdog group has asked the Commerce Department's inspector general to investigate whether the agency has violated its own administrative order regarding the integrity of the agency's scientific findings. Counsel for the group wrote the inspector general, "The Trump administration’s practice of injecting politics into the scientific decision-making process risks NOAA’s credibility as a fact and science-driven agency."

NOAA has refused to aggressively regulate fishing boats in areas occupied by the endangered whale. In June, one of just ten calves born this season was struck by a boat off the New Jersey coast. No advisory was issued by authorities.  Speed warnings are only given out when three or more whales are known to be in a particular area.  Entanglement and collision are the leading causes of unnatural death among right whales, once hunted to near extinction by man.  In fact, the whale got its name because it was easier to kill than other species, like the sperm whale, which sometimes turned on its persecutors.  The right whales plight was intensified by the regime when it recently authorized commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

In another move to weaken bedrock environmental laws, the Antichirst completed regulatory changes to the National Environmental Policy Act making it easier for exploiters to avoid the federal requirement for impact studies of federal actions.  The final rule sets hard deadlines of between one and two years for completion of a study, and in some cases, such as oil and gas development, removes the requirement entirely.  The new rules also eliminates the obligation for agencies to study the cumulative effect of a project on climate change. 

Predictably the corrupt occupant of the VWH is using the economic disruption caused by the pandemic to justify his rollback of more than 100 environmental protection laws and regulations as necessary to return to normal levels of economic activity.  A professor of economics at Barnard University, Dr. Belinda Archibong told interviewers, “Saying ‘We’re going to pull back on regulation’ does not mean that firms are going to start hiring more people. That’s complete nonsense. All that’s going to happen is it’s going to lead to more pollution, period.” Unemployment is at record levels, the highest since the Great Depression. Want to understand the modern US economy? Consumer spending consists of around 70% of GDP. Consumers do not spend when they have no wages. Wall Street does not hire factory workers or retail clerks, despite raking billions from government relief efforts.

Huzzah!...Trumpalooza drags on and on and on....