In a rare success story for declining wildlife, the federal government announced Wednesday that the once imperiled California gray whale has "fully recovered" and will be removed from the endangered species list.
The action, proposed a year ago, makes the whale the first marine mammal to be removed from the list. Only one other U.S. species, the American alligator, has been deemed to have recovered fully under the Endangered Species Act.
"This is impressive," said Lee Weddig, executive vice president of the National Fisheries Institute, a group that represents seafood companies and sought to have the whale delisted. "This is a great day for anyone concerned about the system working because it shows that the Endangered Species Act can move in both directions."
The recovery of the whale was attributed in part to the Mexican government's protection of the animals' calving and winter grounds off Baja California.
Mexico has put limits on whale watching in Baja to minimize disturbance to the animals while they bear their young and has backed away from a proposal to drill for oil and gas in calving lagoons.
The gray whale was hunted nearly to extinction several decades ago. It has made a gradual recovery since a ban on hunting it was imposed in 1946, but still merited protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1970. The act made it illegal to injure or harass the animals or significantly disturb their habitat.
Some fishermen have been prosecuted under the Endangered Species Act for injuring or killing gray whales in nets. But fishing groups said they petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to remove the whale to set a precedent for the delisting of other marine creatures.
Because the animals still will be protected under the U.S. Marine Mammal Act, which prohibits killing them, fishermen say the whales' removal from the endangered list will not affect fishing practices.
Environmental groups were divided over whether the whale should be removed from the list.
"We are very concerned about offshore oil drilling and its effects upon the whale, and whether we now will be able to really monitor and handle that situation," said William Snape, staff attorney for Defenders of Wildlife.
Because of the whale's protection under the Endangered Species Act, federal oil leases could not be issued in places frequented by the animals until U.S. wildlife officials first ensured that the whales would not be injured and their habitat would not be disturbed.
