Biden Admin Inaction Keeps Critically Endangered Whales on Road to Extinction

Jane Davenport, Senior Attorney, Defenders of Wildlife Tweet

Conservation groups expressed anger and frustration at today's announcement by NOAA Fisheries to withdraw a proposed rule expanding protections for North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes. In 2024 alone, four right whales, including two females and two dependent calves, died as the result of vessel strikes in US waters.

Since 2020, at least 16 critically endangered North Atlantic right whales have been killed or injured by blows from boats and ships. Fewer than 70 reproductively active females, the literal life blood of this species, remain. Research has shown that a vessel traveling at 10 knots or less is much less likely to harm a whale in a collision.

"NOAA Fisheries has kept the right whale waiting for improved vessel strike protections for years," said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. "In attempting to make everyone happy, the agency turned years of delay into an outright denial of the needs of a critically endangered species. The agency has a mandate to protect the right whale, but ran out the clock, leaving the whale with an out-of-date rule that we know is not enough."

"Juno," a North Atlantic right whale calf found dead earlier this year after sustaining severe head, mouth and lip wounds stemming from a vessel strike.

The proposed rule was issued in 2022 following a petition submitted by Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation in 2012. The groups joined by Conservation Law Foundation resubmitted the petition in 2020. The petitions asked the agency to enhance the 2008 speed rule to include additional areas right whales are known to travel as well as to expand the rule to include smaller vessels. Due to agency inaction, the groups filed suit in 2021 asking the court to require the agency to respond.

In an effort to protect vulnerable mother and calf pairs, the groups also submitted emergency petitions in 2022 and 2023, asking the agency to immediately implement measures in the species' only known calving area in the southeast U.S. The agency denied the requests, claiming it did not have the time or resources to implement emergency measures as they worked toward a final rule.

"The gross inaction and delays by this administration over the past four years to release this rule is inexcusable," said Erica Fuller, Senior Counsel at Conservation Law Foundation. "We exhausted every avenue available to us to move this forward as the right whale body count from vessel strikes continued to grow."

"Accidental entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes are listed as the primary threats to North Atlantic right whales," said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, "but their actual greatest threat is political inaction and that is what will drive them to extinction."

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 entanglements were not in place. Only around 370 whales survive today.

Conservation groups have been vocal that existing measures do not adequately protect right whales, particularly pointing to "dynamic management areas." These areas are potential collision hotspots where NOAA requests that boats and ships slow to 10 knots, but few vessels comply. The groups believe these commonsense speed limits should be made mandatory and enforced.

"This is a tragic day for endangered right whales, who desperately need our help. I'm outraged that the federal government's years of foot-dragging led to this outcome, which isn't based on science or evidence but on cowardice and politics," said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The agency's inaction means that more right whales will suffer and die. The survival of these whales as a species depends on more protections from deadly ship strikes and deadly entanglements in fishing gear. If we don't curb these manmade threats, these beautiful animals will vanish forever."

For over 75 years, Defenders of Wildlife has remained dedicated to protecting all native animals and plants in their natural communities. With a nationwide network of nearly 2.1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard our wildlife for generations to come. To learn more, please visit https://defenders.org/newsroomor follow us on X @Defenders.

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