Vessel speed restrictions to reduce ship collisions with North Atlantic right whales
Open-knowledge reference entry
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established a rule in 2008 to implement vessel speed restrictions of 10 knots or less on ships 65 ft (20 m) or longer in various locations along the East Coast of the United States. The purpose of the regulations was to reduce the probability of deaths and injuries to endangered North Atlantic right whales due to collisions with ships. The rule was enacted December 9, 2008.
History
North Atlantic right whales are highly endangered. In the early 1900s, the population was reduced to only a few hundred whales as a result of commercial whaling. Although whales were protected from commercial whaling since 1935, the population still has not fully recovered. In 2011 the population of western North Atlantic right whales was estimated at about 465 whales. Despite recent small growth in population, the North Atlantic right whales remain critically endangered. The eastern North Atlantic right whales are nearly extinct.
It is difficult for the North Atlantic right whale to quickly increase its population due to its low reproduction level.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vessel speed restrictions to reduce ship collisions with North Atlantic right whales” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.