Critics say NOAA plan not enough to save critically endangered right whales

With critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population numbers dropping fast in recent years, federal regulators have been under pressure to find a plan to dramatically cut the number of whales seriously injured and killed by entanglement in fishing gear and from being hit by ships.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division unveiled their final rule Tuesday that it said reduced the risk of serious injury and mortality from entanglement in buoy lines for lobster and crab fishermen by 69%.

It immediately drew fire from conservation organizations who said it did too little to save a species headed for extinction and from some fishermen who felt it went too far and threatened their survival.

“We’re disappointed in this rule. This was an opportunity to do more in a situation where this population is continuing to disappear,” said Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. Knowlton said that at least an 80% reduction was needed.

“Our feeling is that that (69% reduction) is not a strong enough target considering the status of right whales and the amount of risk,” said Gib Brogan, senior campaign manager at Oceana.

Populations shrinking

North Atlantic right whale numbers have been dropping since 2010 and are now estimated to be around 360 individuals — down from 488 in 2011 — with fewer than 100 breeding females. Scientists estimate that less than one right whale per year can die from human causes if the species is to avoid extinction. But NOAA data showed that over the past four years, 50 have been confirmed dead or injured seriously enough by entanglements in fishing gear or collisions with ships that they are likely to die.

This year, there was one confirmed death from gear entanglement and three whales seriously injured by ship strikes and two by entanglement, including one spotted off Cape Cod in March.

NOAA’s plan includes three new seasonal closed areas, with no lobster and crab fishing using vertical lines to connect to surface buoys. These include nearly 5,500 square miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, which will be closed from February to April; a 967-square-mile area 12 miles off the coast of Maine closed from October to January; and an extension of an existing Massachusetts state closure in a 487-square-mile strip from Plymouth to the New Hampshire border from February to April. NOAA estimated 26 fishing vessels used the area south of Nantucket, 106 the Massachusetts coastal area and 62 vessels the Maine closed area.

In a move intended to encourage the development of ropeless pot fishing technologies, NOAA allowed fishermen to apply for an exemption to fish in both the new closed areas and existing closed areas with gear that uses buoys that rest on the bottom and are deployed to the surface only when summoned with a remote control signal from the fisherman. The buoy trails a line that can then be used by the fisherman to haul the pots.

Ropeless technology being tested

While much progress has been made on this technology, it’s still only in the trial phase, and considered by fishermen to be prohibitively expensive. But Michael Pentony, NOAA’s regional administrator for the Northeast, said that about 20 fishermen were now working with the gear in pilot programs and the federal agency had 300 ropeless units to lend out to interested fishermen. He expected his agency would have further estimates on cost and effective use of the technology in a report next spring.

Other elements of the plan include an extensive gear-marking system to help researchers and regulators identify where the whales are becoming entangled. Ropes are required to be marked with colors specific to the state and additional markings for those fishing in federal waters, with markings at multiple points along its length for gear set in both state and federal waters.

Conservation Law Foundation Oceans Program senior attorney Erica Fuller said those markings are too far apart in the new rule and should have been required every 40 feet, a distance that researchers said would allow them to identify the region of origin in 95% of entanglement cases.

Fuller said that, since its first take reduction plan in 1997, NOAA has failed to adhere to Marine Mammal Protection Act requirements to reduce right whale mortality to close to zero within five years.

“They are long overdue to comply,” she said.

New rule calls for weaker lines

The new rule also strives to make buoy lines easier for the right whales to break with either sections of 1,700-pound breaking strength line or devices that connect segments of line that have been shown to separate under pressure from calves and adult right whales. But Knowlton, who did critical research to determine that breaking strength, said that Anderson Cabot researchers had recommended making the entire line 1,700 pounds not just sections; or using those breakaway devices every 40 feet of line, not just one to two per line that would still allow for long sections of rope at lethal strength. 

“Making (the line) weak throughout wouldn’t eliminate entanglements but it would make them less lethal,” Knowlton said.

The new NOAA plan also hoped to reduce the number of vertical buoy lines in use by requiring fishermen to string traps together in what is known as a trawl with anywhere from two to 50 traps between buoy lines depending on the region and its entanglement risk.

Marisa Trego, coordinator of the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office large whale take reduction team, said NOAA estimated the new rule would cost fishermen $9.8 to nearly $20 million the first year for the cost for implementation and reduced landings. They estimated the cost over the next six years at $50 to $90 million.

Pentony said this was just phase one in a multi-step process to address right whale mortality. He anticipated they would have new rules to address ship collisions and to curtail the impact of other fisheries by next spring. Given that 21 of the 34 confirmed dead right whales were found in Canadian waters, Pentony said his agency will continue to work with that government.

Maine fisherman express displeasure

Maine fishermen, in particular, were not happy about the new rules or the new closed area.

“Maine lobstermen and women are not killing right whales,” Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation Executive Director Crystal Canney wrote in a press release Tuesday. “Instead of saving right whales what this decision does is endanger not only the livelihoods of our lobstermen and women but also their lives.”

The Maine lobster industry contends their members rarely if ever encounter right whales, but Trego said that acoustic buoys, fishing surveys and habitat modeling showed the Maine closed area in particular was frequented by them.

Most of the new measures don’t go into effect until May of next year. The new closures are effective within 30 days of the rule publication in the Federal Register.

On a bright note, there were 19 right whale calves born this year after a string of bad years that bottomed out in 2018 with no calves being born. 

"Now we just have to find a way to keep them alive," Knowlton said.