In 2004, under pressure from an Earthjustice lawsuit, the National Marine Fisheries Service finally re-classified the Hawaiʻi-based longline fishery as “Category 1″—a designation for fisheries that annually kill and seriously harm marine mammals at unstainable rates—due to its excessive incidental take of Hawaiʻi’s false killer whales.

According to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, this recategorization should have triggered the rapid creation of a team that would ensure improvements are made in the fishery to avoid killing or seriously injuring false killer whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to do so, claiming inadequate funding.

Earthjustice is involved in a long-standing court battle to ensure that appropriate actions are taken to protect this incredible imperiled species.