Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled a bill recently to delay new vessel speed limits on the Atlantic coast. Whale advocates say the legislation would doom the North Atlantic right whale to extinction.
The bill, the “Protecting Whales, Human Safety, and the Economy Act of 2024,” S. 4948, was introduced Friday. It would prevent NOAA from modifying or replacing the current right whale vessel strike reduction rule until 2030. The agency’s proposed modification would expand existing speed limits, restricting boats more than 35 feet long from cruising at more than 10 knots in certain zones during certain times of the year.
The current rule applies only to boats longer than 65 feet, and the proposal to expand it has met with an uproar from nautical industries and their allies in Congress.
But NOAA and advocates for the critically endangered right whale say more must be done to protect the species, of which fewer than 360 remain. Vessel strikes are one of the two leading causes of death for right whales, along with entanglement in fishing gear.
