Ships off the US east coast must slow down more often to save a disappearing whale species from extinction, the federal government said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement through new proposed rules designed to prevent ships from colliding with North Atlantic right whales.
Ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the two biggest threats to the giant animals, numbering less than 340 and declining in numbers.
Efforts to save the whales have long focused on fishing gear, especially that used by lobster fishermen on the east coast. The proposed speed rules for ships indicate that the government wants shipping to take more responsibility.
“Changes to existing ship speed control are essential to stabilize the ongoing decline of the right whale population and prevent the extinction of the species,” the proposed rules, which are expected to be published in the federal registry, state.
The new rules would expand seasonal slow zones off the east coast, requiring sailors to slow down to 10 knots (just over 11 mph or 19 kph).
They would also need more ships to comply with the rules by expanding the size classes that have to slow down.
The rules also state that Noaa would create a framework to introduce mandatory speed limits when whales are known to be present outside of the seasonal slow zones.
Federal authorities have spent a few years revising the speed limits used to protect the whales. Shipping rules have long focused on a patchwork of slow zones that require sailors to slow down for whales. Some zones are mandatory, others are voluntary.
Environmental groups have argued that many boats are breaking the speed limits and that the rules need to be tightened.
The environmental organization Oceana released a report in 2021 stating that non-compliance was nearly 90% in mandatory zones and compliance was also dangerously low (nearly 85%) in voluntary zones.
“It’s no secret that speed craft drift rampant along the North Atlantic whales’ migration route, along the east coast,” said Gib Brogan, Oceana campaign manager.
Many members of the shipping industry were well aware that the new speeding rules were on the way.
Chris Waddington, technical director of the London-based International Chamber of Shipping, said: “The shipping industry takes the protection of whales seriously and has taken steps to protect them, from involving stakeholders to reducing speed and rerouting.”
Right whales were once plentiful, but their populations plummeted due to commercial whaling generations ago.
Although they have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for decades, they are only slowly recovering.
More than 50 of the whales were affected by ships between the spring of 1999 and the spring of 2018, Noaa reports.
Scientists have said in recent years that the warming of the ocean due to the climate crisis is causing the whales to stray from protected areas and shipping lanes in search of food.
The whales give birth off the coasts of Georgia and Florida and migrate north to feed off Massachusetts, Maine and Canada.
Members of the New England lobster fishery argue that too many regulations designed to save the whales focus on fishing, not snagging ships.