OCEAN CITY – While it remains to be seen if a proposed federal rule change to reduce offshore speed limits for recreational and commercial vessels comes to fruition, the Biden administration this week denied a petition to institute the changes immediately.
In an effort to save endangered North Atlantic right whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proposed a 10-knot speed restriction for recreational and commercial vessels 35 feet in length or greater, down from the current 65 feet. The proposed rule change would expand the go-slow zones to include virtually the entire east coast out to a 90-mile radius and extend the zone restrictions to as many as seven months of the year.
NOAA has yet to make a final decision on the proposed rule change, but national environmental advocacy group Oceana and other conservation groups in December filed an emergency rulemaking petition seeking an immediate implementation of the proposed 10-knot rule. However, this week the Biden administration, through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) denied the emergency petition to immediately implement the proposed 10-knot rule change.
The denial does not necessarily mean the proposed rule change is dead. Instead, NMFS officials have reportedly said the agency does not have the resources to effectively implement emergency regulations while the decision on the longer-term rule change is still being explored. Instead, NMFS officials have said the agency continues to work with vessel operators to get voluntary slowdowns, at least while the right whale calving season is in full swing.
Right whales begin giving birth to calves around mid-November until mid-April and their calving grounds are typically in the warm water off the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida, although they migrate through the mid-Atlantic area on their way to the calving grounds. Pregnant females and mothers with nursing calves are particularly vulnerable to vessel strikes because they much of their time near the surface of the water, according to published reports.