- Certainly getting a judge to definitively either call for more protections or reject measures that go too far can provide immediate impact.

The courts are a major avenue for change, but they're not the only road.

Getting ropeless fishing gear developed, limiting whale collisions with ships through lower speed limits for boats, securing a lot more money for enforcing right whale protections; all of that is necessary to save them from extinction, which may only be 20 years away on this current track we're on.

So we'll see how these fights play out in court for as long as there's this existential threat to both right whales and the lobster fishery.