U.S. lawmakers in Congress are continuing to prioritize spending to address ongoing issues between the New England lobster industry and the endangered North Atlantic right whale, a species whose habitat overlaps with valuable fishing grounds.
The North Atlantic right whale population – which began experiencing an “unusual mortality event” in 2017 – hit a low in 2020, when researchers estimated their population at just 358 individuals. The declining population triggered regulatory efforts to save the species and help it recover, but those efforts have clashed with the commercial fishing industry in the region, which has come under fire for entanglements and vessel strikes.
The issue came to a head when NOAA Fisheries issued a biological opinion in 2021, which concluded that regulators needed to impose stringent new rules on the lobster industry in order to save the whales from extinction. However, many doubted whether the projections used in the biological opinion were accurate, and the issue quickly landed in court. A federal judge ultimately ruled in 2023 that the agency had acted wrongly by using worst-case scenarios in that 2021 biological opinion. The judge then vacated the document, killing the requirement for more stringent regulations.
U.S. lawmakers have worked since then to block new regulations from being imposed on the lobster industry and have spent tens of millions of dollars to reduce entanglements, help the whales recover, and prevent vessel strikes.
Accordingly, lawmakers included several provisions in an appropriations package in January 2026 funding NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Department of Commerce more broadly to address the challenges around North Atlantic right whale recovery.
Most notably, the bill included USD 51 million (EUR 44 million) for right whale-related research, monitoring, and conservation efforts, marking an increase of USD 4 million (EUR 3.3 million) over the prior year’s spending.
“The Committee supports the use of supplementary funds previously provided to the agency for these purposes, including innovative gear research, acoustic monitoring, and satellite tracking. NOAA shall continue to support disentanglement, stranding response, and necropsy activities,” the Senate Appropriations Committee said in its report on the Senate version of the legislation, which provides direction on how NOAA Fisheries should spend the funding Congress has allocated.
USD 30 million (EUR 26 million) of that funding is dedicated to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to spend on testing or voluntary implementation of innovative gear that can reduce entanglements. Funding can also be used for broad-scale monitoring of whale habitat use, dynamic management, and the development of alternative models for North Atlantic right whales.
“This funding will support Maine’s lobster industry by improving the incomplete and imprecise science and research upon which the federal government relies. The flawed data being used to inform regulations has created unnecessary, burdensome requirements for Maine lobstermen and women,” U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of the provision. “As chair of the Appropriations Committee, I worked hard to ensure this funding was included in the final funding bill.”
The legislation also “encouraged” NOAA Fisheries to stop using worst-case scenarios and assumptions in evaluating the North Atlantic right whale population.
Collins has pressured the federal government to make sure the “worst-case scenario” analysis used for the 2021 biological opinion is not used again; in June 2025, Collins asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Gold Standard Science” would preclude the use of worst-case scenarios.
“We think this capricious lack of rigor in our science has got to end, so the gold standard executive order saying only real science, not opinion-based science, has to be the rule,” Lutnick said. “We protect our fishermen; we protect our ranchers. These are key things that this administration is going to drive for.”
Elsewhere in the legislation, lawmakers invested funding in advancing whale monitoring technology; the legislation included USD 5 million (EUR 4.3 million) for a pilot program that will provide near real-time monitoring of large whales to help avoid vessel strikes.
U.S. Representative Earl Carter (R-Georgia) also secured USD 500,000 (EUR 426,682) in earmarked funding for the Georgia Conservancy, which will transmit information about the whales’ seasonal management areas to vessels leveraging existing automatic identification system (AIS) technology.
“Vessel strikes pose a significant threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, whose only known calving ground is in the waters of coastal Georgia. Investing in AIS technology helps to protect this incredible species and provides safeguards to the boating community and our coastal economy,” Georgia Conservancy President Katherine Moore said in a statement.
“Using existing technology to monitor for right whales and protect mariners is a common-sense solution to a challenging coastal problem. Preserving this species does not have to come at the expense of boater safety or robust economic activity. With this funding, we are ensuring a bright future for coastal Georgians and the marine life that calls our waters home,” Carter added.
There have been positive signs for the right whale population since reaching that low point in 2020, with the population slowly increasing over the last five years. In October 2025, a North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimate reported 384 individuals – an increase of 7 percent. Though the slight improvement is a positive sign for their eventual recovery, a 2023 NOAA analysis cautioned that the species will go extinct unless vessel strikes and entanglements are “significantly reduced.”
