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(CN) — Finding federal management of the American lobster fishery threatens to drive the North Atlantic right whale — one of the first animals protected by the Endangered Species Act — into extinction, a federal judge Thursday ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to comply with the act.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in a 20-page order Thursday a 2014 finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service the American lobster fishery would not jeopardize the North Atlantic right whale population — of which there are 400 left in the world — violated the Endangered Species Act, granting summary judgment in favor of several conservation groups.

The 2014 Biological Opinion by the…