July 24, 2025 — Conservation groups warn that draft legislation being considered in U.S. Congress could gut the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), legislation designed to safeguard vulnerable whales, dolphins, and other species from commercial fishing activities and other potential threats.
“If this bill were to become law, it would significantly hinder the ability to take any conservation actions for marine mammals,” wildlife biologist and television host Jeff Corwin said in his testimony. “More dolphins, whales, sea otters, and other marine mammals will be killed and injured, and incentives to develop new technologies and methods to reduce those human impacts on marine mammals would disappear.”