NOAA Fisheries is providing $6 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in support of projects to develop technologies that minimize vessel strikes with whales, including the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
In a statement, NOAA said the partnership is intended to facilitate technology-based tools and increase the use and awareness of existing technologies to reduce vessel strikes to North Atlantic right whales, including tools that detect and identify whales and alert vessels when they are present.
“The recreational boating industry has long been urging NOAA to accelerate the analysis of currently available technologies as an alternative and measurable approach to reducing vessel strike risk for recreational boats, and we’re glad to see NOAA finally making use of Inflation Reduction Act funding toward this effort,” NMMA president and CEO Frank Hugelmeyer told Trade Only Today. “Technologies exist to help solve the North Atlantic right whale conservation challenge, which is why we continue to call upon the administration to withdraw the vessel speed rule and instead use advanced marine technologies to mitigate the risk of vessel strikes.”
This project is part of a broader partnership between NOAA Fisheries and the foundation in support of the North Atlantic Right Whale Road to Recovery, the agency’s plan to recover the species. NOAA said it also builds on and will further the goals and objectives of the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Risk Reduction Technology Workshop.
“NOAA Fisheries is proud to partner with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support grants to develop innovative technologies to reduce vessel strikes,” Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said in a statement. “They are a crucial partner in the conservation of North Atlantic right whales.”
