Saving Seafood

Slow Speed Zone Southeast of New York City to Protect Right Whales

November 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In Effect Through December 2

NOAA Fisheries is triggering a Slow Zone (voluntary vessel speed restriction zone), southeast of New York City.

This Slow Zone was triggered on November 17, 2020, when the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute acoustic monitoring buoy detected right whales in the New York Bight, New York.

Mariners, please go around this areas or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where right whales have been detected.

Southeast of New York City Slow Zone is in effect through December 2.

40 41 N
40 01 N
073 03 W
073 55 W

Active Seasonal Management Areas November 1- April 30

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

Block Island Sound 

Ports of New York/New Jersey

Entrance to the Delaware Bay
(Ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington)

Entrance to the Chesapeake Bay 
(Ports of Hampton Roads and Baltimore)

Ports of Morehead City and Beaufort, NC

Within a continuous area 20-nm from shore between Wilmington, North Carolina, to Brunswick, Georgia.

Find out more and get the coordinates for each mandatory slow speed zone.

Give Right Whales Room

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. NOAA is cautioning boaters and fishermen to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking all fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales and remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements. Commercial fishermen should use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are only about 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

North Atlantic right whales are NOAA Fisheries’ newest Species in the Spotlight. This initiative is a concerted, agency-wide effort to spotlight and save marine species that are among the most at risk of extinction in the near future. 

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

More Information

Recent right whale sightings

Find out more about our right whale conservation efforts and the researchers behind those efforts.

Download the Whale Alert app for iPad and iPhone

Acoustic detections in Cape Cod Bay and the Boston TSS, as well as other regions along the eastern seaboard.

Details and graphics of all vessel strike management zones currently in effect.

Reminder: Approaching a right whale closer than 500 yards is a violation of federal and state law.

Spread the Word!

All boaters, or interested parties, can sign up for email notifications  and selecting “Right Whale Slow Zones” under the Regional New England/Mid-Atlantic subscription topics. You can also follow us on Facebook (@NOAAFisheriesNEMA) and Twitter (@NOAAFish_GARFO)  for announcements.

Watch our video on Right Whale Slow Zones.

Read the full release here

From the sea floor to the courtroom, the fight to save right whales grows urgent

November 17, 2020 — Artie Raslich has been volunteering for seven years with the conservation group Gotham Whale, working on the American Princess, a whale-watching boat based in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. In that time Raslich, a professional photographer, has glimpsed a North Atlantic right whale, the world’s rarest cetacean, only twice. The first time was an unseasonably warm December day in 2016, when he managed to snap a striking image of a right whale’s dark tail against the backdrop of the New York City skyline. “That was a beautiful shot,” Raslich says, proudly. The second was just a few weeks ago, in early October, roughly three miles east of Sea Bright, New Jersey.

Unfortunately, both whales had suffered an increasingly common fate: They were entangled in fishing ropes and were likely to die.

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered species on the planet. Scientists announced last month that there are only about 360 of the animals left, down roughly 50 from the previous year’s survey. They live along the East Coast, from northern Florida to Canada, where the 50-foot-long, 140,000-pound leviathans must navigate through millions of commercial fishing lines — primarily lobster traps — and one of the world’s most crowded shipping channels. Too often they become tangled in those lines, or are struck by a ship. The fight to save them, led by biologists and conservation groups, has grown urgent — in the water and in the courts.

Read the full story at Food & Environment Reporting Network

Slow Speed Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

November 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is triggering a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area  or DMA) south of Nantucket.

This DMA was triggered by a November 15, 2020, sighting of an aggregation of right whales.

Mariners, please go around this areas or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where groups of right whales have been sighted.

South of Nantucket DMA is in effect through November 30.

40 59 N
40 23 N
069 05 W
069 52 W

Active Seasonal Management Areas November 1- April 30

Mandatory speed restrictions of 10 knots or less (50 CFR 224.105) are in effect in the following areas:

  • Block Island Sound
  • Ports of New York/New Jersey
  • Entrance to the Delaware Bay
    (Ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington)
  • Entrance to the Chesapeake Bay
    (Ports of Hampton Roads and Baltimore)
  • Ports of Morehead City and Beaufort, NC
  • Within a continuous area 20-nm from shore between Wilmington, North Carolina, to Brunswick, Georgia.

Find out more and get the coordinates for each mandatory slow speed zone.

Read the full release here

Maine fishermen worried that protections for whales will damage industry

November 10, 2020 — Maine’s fishermen are concerned about potential closure of fishing grounds under new federal rules being considered for right whale protections.

“Anytime you talk about closing areas, there are profound impacts to the fishing communities and the ecosystem,” Ben Martens, Executive Director of The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) told The Center Square.

“You could put it in an area that could decimate an entire community.”

Maine Public Radio recently posted documents from the Maine Department of Marine Resources (MDMR), including a letter from MDMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher that details concerns about closing Lobster Conservation Management Areas (LCMA) to fishing.

“These lobster zones are among the most productive and lucrative areas in the Maine lobster fishery,” Keliher wrote.

Read the full story at The Center Square

Feds extend right whale protections to mid-November

November 3, 2020 — The federal government has extended protections designed to help keep a declining species of whale safe off New England until Nov. 15.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it is asking mariners to go slowly through an area south of Nantucket or avoid it completely. NOAA started the protections after an Aug. 31 sighting of a group of North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full story at The Wilton Bulletin

Extended: Slow Speed Zone South of Nantucket to Protect Right Whales

November 2, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces an extension to the previously triggered voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area or DMA) south of Nantucket.

This DMA was originally triggered by an August 31, 2020 sighting of an aggregation of right whales and previously extended until October 20, 2020, and again to November 3, 2020. We are now extending the Slow Zone through November 15, 2020 after an aerial survey team observed an aggregation of right whales South of Nantucket on October 31, 2020.

Mariners, please go around this areas or go slow (10 knots or less) inside this area where groups of right whales have been sighted.

South of Nantucket DMA is in effect through November 15.

41 16 N
40 32 N
069 37 W
070 28 W

Read the full release here

Ropeless gear gains new urgency in bid to save right whales

November 2, 2020 — The sight of a field of brightly colored lobster buoys bobbing on an otherwise featureless ocean is as ironically New England as a lobster roll. These buoys number in the millions, and are each connected by a line to the traps below creating a maze, in some areas a kind of wall, that whales, including the world’s most endangered great whale, must navigate in its search for food.

With over 80% of North Atlantic right whales bearing scars of entanglements in fishing line, the task is formidable, and eliminating some, if not all, of these buoys and lines has been the subject of lobster management and litigation.

For the past two years, it has also been the subject of intense research as scientists in the U.S. and Canada race to find an affordable and reliable technology that will allow lobstermen and other fixed-gear fishermen to find and retrieve their gear without running a line from the surface to the bottom.

Before the first ropeless buoy workshop in 2018, fishing without a buoy line was considered fantasy or science fiction, said Sean Brillant, manager of marine programs for the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Reminder: Seasonal Management Areas in Effect November 1 to Protect Right Whales

October 29, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

All vessels 65 feet (19.8 meters) or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in certain locations (called Seasonal Management Areas or SMAs) along the U.S. east coast at certain times of the year to reduce the threat of vessel collisions with endangered North Atlantic right whales. The purpose of this mandatory regulation is to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries to these endangered whales that result from collisions with vessel.Because vessels of all sizes can strike a whale, NOAA Fisheries also encourages vessels less than 65 feet in length to help protect right whales by slowing to 10 knots of less within active SMAs as well.

Migratory Route and Calving Grounds, November 1 – April 30

Block Island Sound waters bounded by:

40º51’53.7″ N 070º36’44.9″ W

41º20’14.1″ N 070º49’44.1″ W

41º04’16.7″ N 071º51’21.0″ W

40º35’56.5″ N 071º38’25.1″ W then back to starting point.

Within a 20-nm (37 km) radius of the following (as measured seaward from the COLREGS lines):

-Ports of New York/New Jersey:

40º29’42.2″N 073º55’57.6″W

-Entrance to the Delaware Bay

(Ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington):

38º52’27.4″N 075º01’32.1″W

-Entrance to the Chesapeake Bay

(Ports of Hampton Roads and Baltimore):

37º00’36.9″N 075º57’50.5″W

-Ports of Morehead City and Beaufort, NC: 34º41’32.0″N 076°40’08.3″W

Within a continuous area 20-nm from shore between Wilmington, North Carolina, to Brunswick, Georgia, bounded by the following:

A- 34º10’30″N, 077º49’12″W

B- 33º56’42″N, 077º31’30″W

C- 33º36’30″N, 077º47’06″W

D- 33º28’24″N, 078º32’30″W

E- 32º59’06″N, 078º50’18″W

F- 31º50’00″N, 080º33’12″W

G- 31º27’00″N, 080º51’36″W

and west back to the shore.

Give Right Whales Room

North Atlantic right whales are on the move along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. NOAA is cautioning boaters and fishermen to give these endangered whales plenty of room. We are also asking all fishermen to be vigilant when maneuvering to avoid accidental collisions with whales and remove unused gear from the ocean to help avoid entanglements. Commercial fishermen should use vertical lines with required markings, weak links, and breaking strengths.

Right Whales in Trouble

North Atlantic right whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Scientists estimate there are only about 400 remaining, making them one of the rarest marine mammals in the world.

North Atlantic right whales are NOAA Fisheries’ newest Species in the Spotlight. This initiative is a concerted, agency-wide effort to spotlight and save marine species that are among the most at risk of extinction in the near future. 

In August 2017, NOAA Fisheries declared the increase in right whale mortalities an “Unusual Mortality Event,” which helps the agency direct additional scientific and financial resources to investigating, understanding, and reducing the mortalities in partnership with the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and outside experts from the scientific research community.

Read the full release here

Right whale estimate plummets while Maine lobstermen await restrictions

October 29, 2020 — A new scientific estimate has found the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population is declining.

The estimate, from the National Marine Fisheries Service, comes as the lobster fishery awaits a draft of new federal restrictions that aim to reduce the potential for fishing gear to entangle the whales.

The number of right whales worldwide has declined from just over 400 to about 360, new data is showing.

Oceana, an ocean conservation nonprofit in Washington, D.C., is calling on the service to take immediate action to save the species from extinction.

“The new estimates that only about 360 North Atlantic right whales remain underscores the need for immediate action to protect this critically endangered species,” Oceana campaign director Whitney Webber said in the release.

Read the full story at MaineBiz