Trump administration’s plan to relax right whale protections raises concerns

The Trump administration announced plans Wednesday to weaken regulations meant to protect highly endangered North Atlantic right whales and instead rely more heavily on technology to reduce vessel strikes, a leading cause of death and injury for the species. 

Conservation organizations, even those that champion the use of emerging technology, argue that these fixes are not yet a proven substitute for the seasonal speed limits now in place for large vessels. 

“We are fully on-board to support innovation and the use of technology to help mariners navigate whale habitat safely,” said Greg Reilly, retired Coast Guard officer and commercial mariner who is the Savannah-based marine campaigner for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “But relying on unproven concepts as a substitute for established protections is a high-stakes gamble we simply cannot afford. With so few North Atlantic right whales remaining, there is no margin for error. Slower vessel speeds remain the only measure proven to reduce deadly vessel strikes and weakening that safeguard now would put this critically endangered species at even greater risk.” 

Georgia connection

Fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales remain. Named for being the “right” whale to hunt because they swim slowly and are often found close to shore, those same traits put them in harm’s way from fast-moving ships along the busy East Coast.

That peril was evident on Tybee Island in February 2024, when researchers examined the carcass of a one-year-old right whale and found it had died from vessel strike injuries. A second juvenile whale that died from a vessel strike washed up on Cumberland Island the following month. 

At that time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had proposed an expansion of its 2008 vessel speed rule to reduce from 65 feet to 35 feet the size of vessels that would have to comply with the 10 knot speed limit in regions and seasons corresponding to the whales’ migratory habits. That proposed expansion was withdrawn days before the start of the Trump administration in early 2025. It had strong support from conservation groups, but fell short of completing the rulemaking process during the Biden administration.

Right whales, which eat tiny crustaceans, feed in the waters off New England and Canada. Females migrate south in the winter to the warmer waters off the Carolinas, Georgia and northeast Florida to give birth. Researchers have documented 22 calves born so far this season, which ends in mid-April. As the official state marine mammal, the species is a symbol of Georgia.

On Wednesday, the NOAA Fisheries Service published a notice in the Federal Register indicating it’s considering the deregulatory action.

 “The goal of this initiative is to reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens on the regulated community by replacing current seasonal speed restrictions with alternative management areas and advanced, technology-based, strike-avoidance measures that maintain or enhance conservation efficacy for the endangered North Atlantic right whale,” the notice read in part.

Rachel Hager, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries described the announcement’s purpose in an email to The Current GA.

“This deregulatory-focused action will seek information from industry experts, coastal communities, and other relevant stakeholders on ways to reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens while ensuring responsible conservation practices for endangered North Atlantic right whales,” she wrote on Feb. 24.

Congressman backs tech solutions

Coastal Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons) has long pushed technological solutions as superior to speed limits, a position backed by marine-related industries. In 2023 he introduced a bill to pause the funding of the vessel speed rule until new monitoring systems for North American right whales were implemented. That bill stalled almost immediately, but since then monitoring systems have been expanding on the East Coast.

And Georgia has jumped aboard the technology train. Off the coast of Savannah, a buoy listens for whale calls in an attempt to detect their presence and warn mariners of it in near real time. It detected a right whale twice in January, but researchers say right whale mothers tend to be quiet around their calves to avoid attracting predators.

Also in January, Carter championed $500,000 in federal funding awarded to the Georgia Conservancy to support and expand the an automated system to warn vessels that speed. Carter did not respond to a request for comment about NOAA’s proposed rulemaking.

Much like the way drivers can see their speed displayed on radar speed signs as they travel through a school zone, Georgia’s seven on-shore Automatic Identification System, or AIS, stations detect vessels speeding in regulated whale habitat and send targeted messages directly to them. All commercial vessels 65 feet and longer are required to carry the AIS collision avoidance system, and some others carry it voluntarily. Vessels receive the message on electronic navigation chart displays.  

The AIS stations are mounted on whatever available coastal structure gets the technology high off the ground. The Brunswick station is mounted on the Sidney Lanier Bridge, for example. (Click here for a video of an AIS installation on Wassaw Island.)

The AIS network system is still in the early stages of development, said Courtney Reich, coastal director of the Georgia Conservancy.

“We want to understand what the boats are seeing and also understand how they’re responding and reacting to what they’re seeing, so that we can maximize its effectiveness,” she said.

Georgia Conservancy is working with a number of groups including IFAW, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Georgia DNR, the the Tybee Island Marine Science Center to implement the system and examine its efficacy.

Reliance on tech ‘premature’

Catherine Ridley of One Hundred Miles said her organization supports investment and research into these technologies, but offers a caveat.

“There are no current technological solutions available that would be as effective as the 10-knot vessel speed restriction for protecting North Atlantic right whales,” she wrote in an email to The Current GA. “We hope that the technology will someday be available as one important tool, but it’s not ready now. And even then, it will likely never be able to fully replace vessel speed regulations to protect our whales.”

Conservationists say reducing speed to 10 knots is a scientifically proven solution that protects right whales while allowing for safe navigation for vessels and humans as well. 

“As a matter of fact, technological solutions aren’t there yet,” said Daniel Franz, staff attorney at the Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife. “This is not a solved problem. This is one where there is nothing more effective than slow speeds and trained observers. They’ve done the research, and they found that just none of them are there yet.”

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in December, Oceana reviewed research on vessel strike reduction technology and concluded it was inferior to slowing down.

“(N)o technological approach has been scientifically validated and shown to be robust, cost-effective, available, and broadly applicable across the many vessels and conditions that occur in North Atlantic right whale habitat,” the brief concluded. “Any reliance on them as a “solution” to displace vessel speed regulations is, at best, premature.”