The Farm Bureau and Building Industry Association are suing to remove Puget Sound Orcas (the 'Free Willy' type whale) from the endangered species list. To understand why, follow the food chain. The Endangered Species Act prohibits anyone from messing with listed species' habitats. If farmers or developers do anything near a river that might harm salmon--the fish that Orcas like to eat--then the offending farmer or developer would be subject to fines and penalties under the ESA.
Here's more:
Farming and industry groups in Washington state sued to remove Puget Sound's several dozen killer whales from the endangered species list, saying the designation will result in unnecessary water and land-use restrictions.
The listing, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in November, will result in "needless" restrictions on the state's farms, especially those near rivers inhabited by salmon - the orcas' prime food source - the groups wrote in the federal lawsuit filed Monday.
"Farmers could face fines and even imprisonment for the most basic farm practices should such actions allegedly disturb salmon," the lawsuit reads.
Sarcastic Sidebar:
Allow me to play devil's advocate for a minute. Suppose--and I'm speaking purely hypothetically here--there were government legislation--oh, for the sake of argument let's call this legislation 'The Farm Bill'--that subsidized crop production in watersheds that feed into rivers that are home to salmon. Wouldn't that make the hypothetical 'Farm Bill' illegal under the ESA? Just wondering.
Back to the story:
So how do farmers and developers plan to get around the problem? Well that's easy...they argue that sub-species can not be listed separately under the ESA.
Lawyers for the Farm Bureau and the Building Industry Association argue that those orcas do not meet the technical requirements for protection under the Endangered Species Act because they are not a "distinct population" of the species.
While the entire subspecies known as "Northern Pacific resident orcas" could be listed as endangered, they argue, the Puget Sound pods alone may not. The subspecies also includes orcas off Alaska and Russia.