关于露脊鲸的保护诉讼可能会持续数月

关于露脊鲸的保护诉讼可能会持续数月

PORTLAND, Maine -- A judge's ruling that the federal government didn't take adequate steps to protect endangered whales will probably result in another monthslong court battle, parties to the lawsuit said.

缅因州波特兰——一名法官裁定，联邦政府没有采取足够的措施来保护濒临灭绝的鲸鱼。诉讼各方表示，这一裁决可能会导致又一场持续数月的法庭大战。

Environmental groups claimed that regulators’ failure to protect the North Atlantic right whale from harm was a violation of the Endangered Species Act, and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled April 9 that they were right. The right whales number only about 400 and are in the midst of a worrisome decline in population.

环保组织称监管机构未能保护北大西洋露脊鲸不受伤害，违反了《濒危物种法》，美国地方法官詹姆斯·博斯伯格于4月9日裁定他们是对的。露脊鲸的数量只有大约400头，而且正处于令人担忧的数量下降之中。

The government, environmentalists and industry members who are involved in the lawsuit must still return to court to determine a remedy. Boasberg ruled that the risk posed to the whales by the lobster fishery was too great, and that a remedy could ultimately result in new restrictions on lobster fishing.

参与诉讼的政府，环境保护主义者和行业成员仍然必须回到法庭来决定补救措施。博斯伯格裁定，捕虾业给鲸鱼带来的风险太大，补救措施可能最终导致对捕虾业的新限制。

The whales are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in lobster fishing gear.

鲸鱼很容易被龙虾渔具缠绕致死。

Members of the industry, including the Maine Lobstermen's Association, have vowed to fight to protect the fishery. The two sides will have to exchange court filings about what the remedy could look like, and the process is likely to take months, said Jake O'Neill, a spokesman for Conservation Law Foundation, one of the environmental groups involved in the lawsuit.

包括缅因州捕虾者协会在内的捕虾业成员誓言要为保护渔业而斗争。参与这起诉讼的环保组织之一、环保法律基金会的发言人杰克·奥尼尔表示，双方将必须交换法庭文件，以确定补救措施可能是什么样子，这个过程可能需要数月时间。

That the way the process will play out is uncertain but is one of few things the environmentalists and fishermen agree on, though both have vowed to save the whales.

这一过程的最终结果是不确定的，但这是环保主义者和渔民达成一致的少数事情之一，尽管他们都发誓要拯救鲸鱼。

“Too soon to know,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association.

“现在下结论还为时过早，”缅因州捕虾者协会的执行理事帕特里斯·麦卡伦说。

A spokeswoman for the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency that handles ocean issues, declined to comment because the lawsuit is still in court.

美国国家海洋和大气管理局(简称NOAA)负责处理海洋事务的联邦机构——国家海洋渔业服务部门的一位女发言人拒绝置评，因为该案仍在审理中。

The environmental groups behind the lawsuit have characterized Boasberg's ruling as a victory for the whales, which were hunted to near extinction during the commercial whaling era.

这起诉讼背后的环保组织称，博斯伯格的裁决是鲸鱼的胜利，在商业捕鲸时代，鲸鱼被捕杀到几近灭绝。

Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the decision "should send a clear signal that federal officials must take immediate action to protect these amazing animals from suffering more deadly, painful entanglements before it’s too late.”

生物多样性中心的海洋法律主任克里斯汀·蒙塞尔表示，这一决定“应该发出一个明确的信号，即联邦官员必须立即采取行动，保护这些神奇的动物免受更致命、更痛苦的纠缠，以免为时过晚”。

But lobster fishing groups have said that they're already working to reduce risk to the rare whales and that they're committed to doing more. The groups represent an industry that harvests one of the most lucrative marine resources in the United States. Lobsters were worth well over half a billion dollars at the docks in 2018.

但捕虾组织表示，他们已经在努力减少这种稀有鲸鱼的风险，并承诺采取更多措施。这些团体代表了一个在美国最赚钱的海洋资源之一的产业。2018年，龙虾在码头的价值超过5亿美元。