NOAA draws heat for plans to curb Atlantic boat speeds

The NOAA Fisheries chief told a House panel that speed limits would protect North Atlantic right whales, but the proposal came under attack.

June 07, 2023

NOAA Fisheries chief Janet Coit on Tuesday defended a proposed rule to save endangered North Atlantic right whales by getting more boaters to slow down.

Testifying before a House Natural Resources subcommittee, Coit said reduced speed limits for boaters in zones all along the Atlantic coast would be one of the best ways to make sure the species doesn’t go extinct.

“We really have no choice, if we’re going to prevent extinction, than doing more,” Coit told the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee.

With the population rapidly dwindling, only an estimated 340 of the right whales now remain. According to NOAA, vessel strikes now rank as a leading cause of their deaths.

NOAA’s proposed rule would expand on existing requirements by reducing the maximum speed limit for commercial and recreational boats of 35 feet or larger to roughly 11 1/2 miles per hour — or 10 knots — in designated zones along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida.

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Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), chair of the full House Natural Resources Committee, leveled the most severe criticism, calling the proposed rule an example of “what happens when you get a bureaucratic administrative state that’s out of control.”

“If there’s a job lost over this rule, it should be the jobs of the people at NOAA that are proposing the rule,” Westerman said, adding that NOAA officials were “acting like they live in their own little fiefdom over there and they can make whatever rule they want without any consequences.”

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the subcommittee ranking member, accused Westerman of using “extreme hyperbole and highly personalized invective" and said it did a disservice to the panel’s efforts to solve what he called “a complicated and vexing issue.”

“Without additional measures, this whale could be functionally extinct by 2037,” Huffman said. “I hope none of us in this room are willing to accept that fate.”

Coit told the panel that there had already been 14 lethal strikes since 2008, including at least five that involved boats of less than 65 feet.

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By:  Rob Hotakainen
Source: E&E Daily