NOAA Fisheries Rescinds Proposed Rule Ineffectively Targeted at Protecting Right Whales
Today, Jan. 15, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) has formally withdrawn its contentious and poorly-designed North Atlantic right whale vessel speed rule. The proposed rule, which was intended to reduce vessel strikes of endangered right whales, was overly broad, lacked supportive data and received backlash from lawmakers, industry members and individuals. The Sportsmen’s Alliance has been tracking the proposed rule, and subsequent lawmaker and agency conversations, closely.
“NOAA Fisheries’ attempt to amend the vessel speed rule was doomed from the start,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “When federal agencies take on rulemaking, they must consider all data (including holes in that data) when making proposals and the potential outcomes of carrying those proposals to final regulation. NOAA didn’t do that here, and they were put on notice of their misstep from every direction.”
Right whales were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1970. NOAA claims that human disturbances, such as entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes, are the largest threat to right whales. The proposed rule, among other things, would have required all vessels 35 to 65 feet in length to abide by a 10 knot (about 11 miles per hour) speed restriction along most of the Atlantic coast for over half the year. Such a restriction would have resulted in dire consequences to various industries and recreation sectors. Even more, these restrictions were based on bad data and outdated technology. Notably, only five right whale vessel strikes involving vessels under 65 feet in length have occurred since 2008.
“There’s no doubt that North Atlantic right whales deserve the ESA’s protections,” said Torin Miller, Associate Litigation Counsel at the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “But other, and better, options exist to protect right whales, industry and recreation simultaneously. New maritime technologies show incredible promise for reducing vessel strikes, and we’ll continue to provide input in creating durable solutions to conserve right whales and support the interests of recreational fishermen and the industries that back them.”
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