On June 6, National Marine Manufacturers Association president and CEO Frank Hugelmeyer testified before Congress that a proposal by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration represents the greatest attempt at public-access restriction in our time.
The proposal to slow boats as small as 35 feet to just 10 knots along much of the Eastern Seaboard during large swaths of the calendar year — put forward last year by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, in an attempt to end vessel strikes of North Atlantic right whales — was the subject of an oversight hearing by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
NOAA’s deputy administrator, Janet Coit, testified that the speed reduction is necessary among smaller boats to try to prevent the extinction of North Atlantic right whales as a species.
Hugelmeyer testified that NOAA’s research is deeply flawed, and that the proposal threatens boater safety along with 314,000 recreational boating and fishing jobs. Instead, Hugelmeyer told lawmakers, Congress should provide funding through appropriations or legislation for research into technology that could help protect the whales.
Dewald - stock.adobe.com“Recreational boaters and anglers are longtime conservationists who share the goal of protecting the North Atlantic right whale and our ocean ecosystems. We’re committed to investing in technologies that do just that,” Hugelmeyer stated in a press release following the hearing.
He added: “NOAA’s proposed rule would be the largest restriction of Americans’ shared access rights to public waters, would put boaters at risk on the water, and decimate tens of thousands of businesses in coastal communities along the Atlantic Seaboard. Marine mammal protection, economic prosperity and access to our cherished waters can coexist. It’s a false choice to make Americans choose one over the other. Innovative technologies, real-time tracking and monitoring tools offer a more viable solution to protect all whales while allowing for continued recreational-marine-related economic contributions along the East Coast.”
Numerous other industry leaders also issued statements urging Congress to protect the marine and fishing industries. Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy, stated: “As America’s original conservationists, recreational anglers ardently support conserving the North Atlantic right whale; we value their role in the marine ecosystem. When we are on the water and we see a whale, what do we do? We stop our engines, hug our children and marvel at God’s amazing creation. What we cannot support is shutting down public access to the Atlantic Ocean. Slowing small recreational boats to [10 knots] for a one-in-a-million chance of a vessel strike is not how we responsibly manage America’s natural resources. Our nation’s top marine scientists at NOAA can and must do better.”
Mike Leonard, vice president of government affairs for the American Sportfishing Association, stated: “The sportfishing industry recognizes we have a responsibility to help conserve right whales, but NOAA’s deeply flawed proposed vessel speed rule is not the answer. Hopefully today’s hearing helped bring to light our numerous legitimate concerns and provides an opportunity for coordination on more viable solutions going forward.”
Chris Edmonston, vice president of government affairs for BoatUS, stated: “We have several concerns for human safety under the proposed vessel speed restrictions. Depending on the sea conditions, NOAA’s [10 knot] speed restriction is less than optimal for most recreational boats, as operating at lower speeds can have a negative impact on visibility, the stability of the vessel, and also adversely affect crew safety. We encourage NOAA to work with the boating community to come up with solutions that protect both whales and boaters.”
The NOAA proposal, first made public last year, would substantially expand 10-knot speed restriction zones along the Eastern Seaboard and increase the number of boats affected. Instead of boats 65 feet and up, the proposal would cover boats down to 35 feet. Go-slow zones would also be expanded to up to seven months of the year for much of the U.S. Atlantic coast, out to 90 miles offshore.
A revision to speed rules dating to 2008 has been in the works for some time. NOAA in 2013 began a review, and it published the findings in 2020. The study noted that the “number of documented and reported small-vessel collisions with whales necessitates further action both as it relates to potential regulations and outreach to this sector of the mariner community.”
Still, when the actual speed proposal was published last year, it shocked much of the marine industry. Normally, says Viking Yacht director of government affairs and sustainability John DePersenaire, anglers and boatbuilders work through regulatory changes under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which sets up a lengthy and stakeholder-inclusive process when a change is proposed. With the current proposal, stakeholders didn’t know actual details until it was published.
In March, the marine industry announced the creation of a Whale and Vessel Safety Task Force. Rather than simply lobby for a repeal of speed limits, WAVS hopes to harness technology so a reliable whale-detection network can be pushed out to boaters’ phones and chart plotters.
All parties agree that the survival of North Atlantic right whales as a species is in jeopardy. Recent studies show that as many as 90% of North Atlantic right whales have sustained entanglement injuries — some severe, nearly all traumatizing. Between 2008 and 2022, there were 12 documented right whale deaths from ship strikes.
Vessels smaller than 65 feet accounted for five of them. In 2009, a 30-foot Pursuit collided with a whale, resulting in more than $100,000 in damages. In 2021, a 54-foot Jarrett Bay collided with a mother and her calf. The calf died, the mother’s fate was unknown, and the $1.2 million boat was a loss.
Today, only around 340 right whales remain. A mere 72 are females of reproduction age, and they are reproducing at far lower numbers (15 last year versus 24 in the early 2000s) than biologists say it will take to reestablish the species.
DePersenaire says the proposed speed rule won’t solve that problem, particularly when smaller boats are responsible for relatively few fatalities. DePersenaire says more research is needed to determine, for example, whether a 50-plus-foot Viking that draws 5 feet at 10 knots is in fact more dangerous to a near-surface whale than the same boat traveling on plane at 16 knots and running much shallower.
“When we looked at the proposed rule, as well, we knew it was a blunt tool,” he says. “They didn’t put much thought into how they could nuance those regulations to accommodate the risk for a 35-foot center console, as opposed to a 1,000-foot container ship.”
Biologist Emily Charry Tissier, who co-founded Whale Seeker to speed up whale tracking with aerial photography, says that today’s technology means an aerial population survey that once took three years can now take hours. She hopes to integrate tools such as drone-survey photography into a real-time network that could be pushed to chart plotters.
Greg Reilly, a campaigner for WAVS partner The International Fund for Animal Welfare, says his organization helped develop the free Whale Alert app to help boaters understand when whales are nearby, based on information sources ranging from acoustic buoys to beach observations. “Our app developer works to aggregate all that and then push it out to the public,” he says.
In the near future, infrared cameras, shipboard drones, forward-facing sonar and radar calibrated to detect the spray from whale spouts might be brought to bear. Whale-mounted AIS trackers had been proposed but are unlikely, given that trackers implanted in whale fins can cause infection.
The trick, Tissier says, is combining all the technology. “That’s why we have this task force,” she says. “Everyone’s coming from different experience. We really need this group of very versatile ocean stakeholders to say, ‘Hey, you don’t know what you don’t know. This is what I see. This is the blind spot.’ Because ultimately, everyone is looking in the same direction on the horizon, saying, ‘This is what we need to do. How can we do it? How can we do it together and in a smart way?’ ”
This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue.
