The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources has approved a version of the Right Whale Act, a bill that would delay new speed limits set to protect North Atlantic right whales until 2030.
The legislation would also create a USD 10 million (EUR 8.9 million) grant program to deploy innovative technologies and best practices to prevent vessels from striking right whales.
“Alaskans understand the delicate balance between protecting marine life and supporting maritime industries,” U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) said following the committee vote. “This bill strikes a necessary balance, ensuring that commerce and conservation can move forward together, benefiting both our economy and our environment.”
NOAA Fisheries first proposed expanding speed limit requirements to smaller vessels in 2022. While the current rule – which has been in place since 2008 – requires vessels over 65 feet in length to keep speeds under 10 knots when traveling through North Atlantic right whale seasonal management areas, the proposed rule would extend the requirement to all vessels 35 feet in length or larger.
In July, 54 federal lawmakers signed a letter demanding that regulators reconsider the rule, calling the change "not well thought out" and claiming the rule could pose safety threats to smaller vessels, hurting the recreational boating industry in the process.
Led by Peltola and U.S. Rep. Earl Carter (R-Georgia), the Right Whale Act offers a legislative solution to the controversial speed limit rule, delaying the rule to 2030.
“NOAA believes that protecting right whales requires killing the recreational boating and fishing industries. I submit that we can protect both, which is why I’m proud that the House Natural Resources Committee passed this important piece of legislation,” Carter said. “There is technology that exists to track right whales, and we must implement it before endangering boaters’ and harbor pilots’ lives with unworkable speed restrictions. I urge a swift vote on the House floor so we can get these critical safeguards signed into law.”
The bill has been endorsed by both the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and the American Sportfishing Association.
In July, NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology Director Evan Howell testified against delaying the speed limit implementation.
“Vessel strikes are an ongoing, unsustainable threat that National Marine Fisheries Service has the statutory authority and mandate to address under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” Howell told the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries. “Over the past few months alone, we have documented four right whale mortalities in U.S. waters. Three of these were consistent with vessel strikes as the cause of death, including one involving a young calf that was struck and killed by a boat estimated to be 35 to 57 feet in length.”
A 2023 analysis by NOAA Fisheries found that North Atlantic right whales will go extinct without significantly reducing vessel strikes and gear entanglements.
In August, U.S. President Joe Biden announced USD 9 million (EUR 8 million) in funding for North Atlantic right whale conservation.
