Court Urged to Uphold Ship Strike Protections for North Atlantic Right Whales

Conservation groups today filed a friend of the court brief expressing support for a federal vessel speed limit rule to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and other whale species from being struck and killed by vessels.

The rule is being challenged in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida by a Florida boat captain and the corporation that owns the 110-foot superyacht that violated the rule in 2022. The plaintiffs, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, argue that NOAA Fisheries lacked the authority to issue the speed rule under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and that the rule runs afoul of constitutional doctrines.

"The right whale needs more, not fewer, protections from deadly vessel strikes," said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. "The speed limit rule is the only proven effective measure to reduce vessel strike deaths and injuries. Without it, the species' extinction is all but guaranteed."

Since 2017, vessel strikes have killed or injured at least 27 critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Only about 70 reproductively active females remain. Research has shown that a vessel traveling at 10 knots or less is much less likely to harm a whale in a collision.

"There's no question that the federal government has the legal authority to protect North Atlantic right whales by issuing this speed limit rule," said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The speed limit rule has been in place for almost two decades and has no doubt saved the lives of critically endangered right whales. Each individual matters for the recovery of this species, and federal officials have a legal obligation to make sure protections are enforced."

The North Atlantic right whale population began a sharp decline around 2010 as whales shifted habitats in a rapidly changing climate, bringing them into areas where protections from vessel strikes and accidental fishing gear entanglements were not in place. Assisted by new measures in the U.S. and Canada to reduce accidental entanglements and vessel strikes, the population has slowly begun to increase over the past four years, demonstrating that the species is viable if adequately protected. Still, only around 380 whales survive today, a 20% population decline over the past 25 years.

"We have speed limits near schools, crosswalks on busy roads, and traffic lights to make driving safer and tickets are issued when drivers speed, ignore pedestrians, or blow through red lights because those behaviors increase the risk of someone getting hurt," said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, North America. "Just like laws on the road, this vessel speed rule was based on factual data and research found it to be effective, protecting both boaters and whales."

Implemented in 2008, the speed limit rule establishes a seasonal 10-knot limit for most vessels 65 feet (the size of a school bus) and longer in "seasonal management areas" along the East Coast where the right whale's migratory pattern overlaps with heavy vessel traffic. "Dynamic management areas" are potential collision hotspots where NOAA Fisheries requests that vessels voluntarily slow to 10 knots, but many vessels do not comply, especially in the species' only known calving ground in the Southeast.

"Intentionally speeding in areas identified as particularly risky for migrating right whales, especially vulnerable moms and newborn calves, is inexcusable," said Erica Fuller, senior counsel at Conservation Law Foundation. "This rule was implemented under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act - two statutes signed into law by President Nixon that have stood the test of time because they are wildly popular with the public and they work. Traveling at speeds that could kill an endangered whale cannot be the cost of doing business when transporting your yacht to Miami."

Conservation groups have been vocal that existing measures do not adequately protect right whales and have pushed for strengthening the speed limit rule by expanding seasonal management areas, applying speed limits to smaller vessels, and making compliance mandatory in dynamic management areas. In January 2025, NOAA Fisheries announced that it was withdrawing a proposed rule that would have implemented these protections, after stalling on the proposal since 2022.

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