August 2, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries released its draft Ropeless Roadmap: A Strategy to Develop On-Demand Fishing, as it also announced proposed changes to vessel speed regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales.
The Roadmap now released is an important step in a series of actions NOAA Fisheries is taking to protect and conserve North Atlantic right whales. NOAA Fisheries and its partners are dedicated to conserving and rebuilding the North Atlantic right whale population and those efforts can be followed through the North Atlantic Right Whale Road to Recovery plan, which describes NOAA Fisheries’ actions to halt the current population decline and recover the species.
NOAA is now seeking input on the draft on ropeless roadmap to help protect the North Atlantic right whales.
According to NOAA Fisheries, “endangered North Atlantic right whales are approaching extinction. The latest preliminary estimate indicates there are fewer than 350 individuals remaining and less than 100 breeding females. Primary threats to the species are entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes.
“Climate change is also affecting every aspect of their survival—changing their ocean habitat, their migratory patterns, the location and availability of their prey, and even their risk of becoming entangled in fishing gear or struck by vessels.”
The proposed changes announced by NOAA Fisheries will introduce, as National Fisherman reported, new vessel speed regulations to further protect North Atlantic right whales from death and serious injuries resulting from collisions — part of a multifaceted approach to stabilize and recover this endangered population. The changes would expand the current mandatory seasonal speed restrictions of 10 knots or less and broaden the spatial boundaries and timing of the seasonal speed restriction areas along the East Coast of the United States, incorporating most vessels measuring 35 to 65 feet in length.