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Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Lifeline for Endangered Right Whales: Along Bay State and More

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Monday, February 1, 2016   

BOSTON - Wildlife protection advocates are calling it a lifeline that will protect the most endangered whales on earth, off the coast of New England and beyond. The National Marine Fisheries Service is extending the boundaries in the North Atlantic for the critically endangered right whale by approximately 39,500 square miles.

Sarah Uhlemann is senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

"The right whale is one of the most endangered large whales in the entire world," she says. "And what this does is protect more of the whale's habitat off a big chunk of the Northeast, and also the coast of the Southeast where the whales breed."

The Humane Society of the U.S. says only about 450 North Atlantic right whales exist and they are more endangered than Siberian tigers, black rhinos, or pandas. The New England stretch of the newly protected area extends from Cape Cod up to Canada in waters generally known as the Gulf of Maine.

The Humane Society's field director for marine wildlife protection Sharon Young is based in Cape Cod. She says the decision will not impact any existing fisheries off the New England coast, but it will impact fishery expansions and other types of development.

"Offshore exploration for oil and gas, proposed wind energy facilities, expansion of areas that would be considered for aquaculture," says Young. "All of those things would have to undergo much more thorough review as to their possible effects on right whales."

Uhlemann says the one downside is that the "feds" did not protect the whale's migratory waters in the mid-Atlantic, saying there was not enough information to show what aspects of that habitat are critical.

"So, twice a year they are going through the mid-Atlantic, which is one of the busiest areas in the country, so there are all sorts of risks as they travel up and down," Uhlemann says. "So, we were disappointed that the agency didn't protect that habitat in between the two feeding and calving areas."

The new rules will take effect next month.


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