An environmental group has given notice it intends to sue the federal government for failing to prepare a recovery plan for highly endangered North Pacific right whales.
Rebecca Noblin of the Center for Biological Diversity in Anchorage says a letter was sent Tuesday to the National Marine Fisheries Service announcing lawsuit plans. A 60-day notice is required before an Endangered Species lawsuit can be filed.
The northern right whale has been listed since 1973. The fisheries service in 2008 published a rule listing North Pacific and North Atlantic right whales as separate endangered species.
Noblin says in the letter that western stock of North Pacific right whales has at most a few hundred animals and the eastern stock that summers in U.S. waters has even fewer – about 30 whales.
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