Biden administration withdraws rules aimed at saving endangered whales from collisions

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The federal government is withdrawing a proposal that more ships are needed to slow down in East Coast waters to try to save an endangered species of whale, officials said Wednesday.

The move in the final days of the Biden administration will leave the endangered North Atlantic right whale vulnerable to extinction as the Trump administration signals a shift in conservation environment toward supporting maritime industries, conservation groups said. But federal officials said there was no way to implement the rules before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday.

New vessel speed rules proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service more than two years ago have been the subject of much debate among shippers, commercial fishermen and wildlife advocates, all of whom have a stake in the fate of the whale. The whales, vulnerable to collisions with ships, number less than 380 and its population has fallen over the last few years.

The Trump administration will likely be less enthusiastic about new restrictions on shipping, said Gib Brogan, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana.

“As we waited and watched the proposed rule advance, and ultimately stall, we watched the water consequences of current insufficient protections,” Brogan said. “And we’ve seen whales get killed by high-speed boats.”

Thousands of public comments

The proposed rules would have expanded the slow-moving zones off the East Coast as well as the size classes of boats and ships that must slow down.

The Fisheries Service received about 90,000 public comments on them, according to documents scheduled to be published Thursday in the Federal Register. The filing states that the Service “does not have sufficient time to finalize this rulemaking in this administration due to the scope and volume of public comments.”

The final rule for changing North Atlantic right whale speed regulations came from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews new regulations before they are implemented, Katherine said Silverstein, spokesperson for the National Marine Fisheries Service. She confirmed that the Fisheries Department withdrew the rule on Wednesday.

Conservation groups have has long maintained that Stricter rules on ship speeds are needed to protect whales, in part because warm ocean waters appear to encourage the animals to move away from protected areas. The federal government first announced the proposal in summer 2022 and a coalition of environmental groups pursued to try to speed up finalizing the rules last year.

Some shippers, however, have argued that the rules could be economically devastating for the boating and shipping industries.

“This is a huge step forward for American boat builders, coastal economies and outdoor enthusiasts across the United States,” said Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, North America’s largest trade association for the recreational boating industry. “The way this rule was written has given rulemaking a bad name and created a completely avoidable dynamic. »

The right whale is disappearing

Right whales were once numerous off the East Coast, but their numbers were devastated during the era of commercial whaling. They have been a protected species for many years, but their recovery has been slow.

Whales migrate from their calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to their feeding grounds off New England and Canada. The journey has become increasingly perilous as the tiny organisms they feed on seek colder waters, forcing the whales to leave established protected areas, scientists said.

Conservation groups that pushed for finalizing the rules said they were motivated in part by documented deaths of right whales from collisions in recent years. In one high-profile case last year, a calf washed up off the coast of the state of Georgia. had head injuries consistent with a collision with a vessel, according to government investigators.

The whales numbered more than 480 in 2010, but that number declined by more than 25% over the following decade. He has slightly ticked more recently, but the animal remains critically endangered. Vessel strikes are “one of the leading causes of the species’ decline,” the National Marine Fisheries Service said in documents.