FinCEN report highlights uptick in wildlife trafficking SARs Illicit proceeds from wildlife trafficking total between an estimated $7 and $23 billion per year, according to data cited by FinCEN. The illegal practice “involves the illicit trade of protected animals, animal parts, and derivatives thereof, including procurement, transport, and distribution, in violation of international or domestic law, and money laundering related to this activity,” the agency stated. FinCEN provided several reasons for highlighting the uptick in wildlife trafficking SARs. Perhaps most of note, wildlife trafficking has a “strong association with corruption and transnational criminal organizations,” two of the agency’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) priorities published in June <https://www.complianceweek.com/risk-management/fincen-puts-financial-institutions-on-notice-with-first-aml/cft-priorities/30529.article> . As a result, there is a need to “enhance reporting and analysis of related illicit financial flows,” FinCEN said. Wildlife trafficking also contributes to “biodiversity loss, damage to fragile ecosystems, and the increased likelihood of spreading of zoonotic diseases.” https://www.complianceweek.com/risk-management/fincen-report-highlights-upti... . -------- These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change — and wind power. With only about 300 left <https://www.andersoncabotcenterforoceanlife.org/blog/right-whale-population-declines-for-10th-straight-year/>, the North Atlantic right whale ranks as one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals <https://www.worldwildlife.org/species-categories/marine-animals/species/directory>. Nearly annihilated centuries ago by whalers, the slow-swimming species is said to have earned its name because it was the “right” whale to hunt. Old-fashioned harpoons have yielded to other threats. Humans are still killing right whales at startlingly high numbers <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/two-percent-of-the-worlds-north-atlantic-right-whales-have-died-in-the-last-two-months/2019/07/31/d3de7d1e-ae31-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> — but by accident. Waters free from whalers now brim with ships that strike them, and ropes that entangle them. The latest challenges come in a changing climate. Rising temperatures are driving them to new seas. And soon, dozens of offshore wind turbines — Critical foraging area <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZJBjGKR7CY7FY91aYS2RHJ92m-czgrG8/view?usp=sharing> : Right whales spend their summers foraging in these waters. To protect the whales and their food sources, large boats are required to slow down. Observed births of North Atlantic right whales have decreased in recent years <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o72_-FcUfRPRRNFE7aE84ucsvgXkq4GC/view?usp=sharing> : Because of entanglements and vessel strikes, more than 10 percent of the right whale population has been killed or seriously injured since 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/04/21/right-whales-b...