The Biden administration has killed a proposed vessel speed rule in the Gulf of Mexico billed as a measure to protect endangered Rice’s whale.
On October 27th, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries- housed under the Commerce Department helmed by Secretary Gina Raimondo - announced it was denying this petition filed by radical environmental groups Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife.
“NOAA Fisheries denied a petition from several non-government organizations to establish a mandatory 10-knot speed limit and other vessel-related mitigation measures to protect endangered Rice’s whales in the Gulf of Mexico and will not proceed with rulemaking at this time,” the NOAA website fact sheet read. “We have concluded that fundamental conservation tasks, including finalizing the critical habitat designation, drafting a species recovery plan, and conducting a quantitative vessel risk assessment, are all needed before we consider vessel regulations.”
The aforementioned groups filed a petition entitled “Endangered and Threatened Species; Petition To Establish a Vessel Speed Restriction and Other Vessel-Related Measures To Protect Rice's Whales” in May 2021 that blamed commercial and recreational anglers, along with boaters - without citing any concrete evidence - for harming this rare yet recently discovered whale. These groups, unsurprisingly, ignored NOAA Fisheries Marine Recreational Information Program trip data and vessel registration data that determined the likelihood of a recreational vessel striking an endangered whale is “less than one in a million.” Clearly, this draft petition wasn’t following the science.
Had the rule gone into effect, a year-round 11 mph slow-down zone stretching from “Pensacola, Fla. to south of Tampa '' would have been enforced to the detriment of law-abiding anglers and boaters. As I noted here at Townhall in July, this draft rule would have deliberately conflated commercial vessels with recreational ones and would impose unenforceable conditions on recreationists. I wrote, “The rule, if adopted, will bar recreational vessels from hosting overnight offshore trips, mandate observers on all trips in the proposed speed zone, and embolden radical environmentalists to report on “non-compliant” recreational vessels, for instance.``
More concerning, this petition undermined actual conservation work involving anglers and boaters - the true conservationists, unlike the aforementioned environmental groups - to bolster diminishing whale numbers. This is typical of powerful, litigious ambulance chasers masquerading as conservationists.
During the summer, recreational fishing and boating groups expressed their dismay with NOAA over considering this rule. They said adopting such a strident rule would disincentivize stakeholders from assisting with whale conservation efforts.
“As more is learned about the recently-discovered Rice’s whale, it is critical that NOAA focus from the outset on collaborating with stakeholders instead of leaping to drastic restrictions,” said American Sportfishing Association president Glenn Hughes “As an industry that cares deeply about conservation of the marine environment, the recreational fishing and boating industry is ready, willing and able to help develop solutions to support whale conservation. Relying on massive speed restrictions that effectively shut down boating and fishing is not a viable path forward for the Rice’s whale or the economy.”
“This would be a huge detriment to the Western panhandle of Florida and they would really be severely impacted in the number of vessels transiting that area would just be incredible,” said Captain Dyland Hubbard of Hubbard’s Marina in St. Petersburg, Florida. “NOAA Fisheries doesn't have the logistics to be able to handle those phone calls. This would be a huge detriment to NOAA Fisheries and an already strenuous environment where they're underfunded and their budget is maxed out. It would cripple NOAA Fisheries to be able to handle that volume of calls so that's totally impossible. Vessel Safety is a huge concern with this.”
The federal government, unsurprisingly, is aiding and abetting the plight of the Rice’s whale in the Gulf and endangered North Atlantic right whale in the Atlantic Ocean.
Instead of greenlighting questionable offshore wind turbines or regulating vessel speeds, the Biden administration should enhance whale monitoring capabilities instead of exploiting their plight.
Both Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations funds and the Green New Deal lite “Inflation Reduction Act '' gave NOAA Fisheries $82 million to expand whale monitoring programs. Has that program started? Has the money actually been used or not? I’m not confident this administration properly stewards these funds since they prioritize DEI and wokeism above all else.
Some legislative remedies exist to resolve this issue, especially concerning the North Atlantic right whale, without displacing this multibillion-dollar industry.
The Protecting Whales, Human Safety, and the Economy Act of 2023 - co-sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and John Boozman (R-AR) - would prohibit NOAA from issuing rules “that modifies or replaces the North Atlantic Right Whale vessel strike reduction regulation” until technological solutions are deployed.
