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Conservation groups filed a rulemaking petition today seeking additional ship-speed limits along the Atlantic coast to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. In June, a baby right whale was found dead off the coast of New Jersey, with propeller wounds across its head, chest and tail.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the fiscal year 2021 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, increasing funding for monitoring and researching the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale by $1.5 million.

The U.S. House Committee on Appropriations passed the Fiscal Year 2021 Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) bill out of committee with an additional $2 million toward protecting the imperiled North Atlantic right whale. The news was welcomed by scientists and environmental groups—including Defenders of Wildlife—who have advocated for greater federal investment to protect the right whale, of which fewer than 400 remain today.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced today that it is changing the status of the North Atlantic right whale from “endangered” to “critically endangered” on its Red List of Threatened Species, recognizing that the species faces an extremely high risk of extinction. The IUCN Red List is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of species.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries officials announced today that a dead North Atlantic right whale has been sighted off the coast of Elberon, New Jersey. The whale has not yet been identified, though NOAA and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center are working to secure a necropsy site. Cause of death is unknown. This marks the first confirmed right whale death in U.S. waters in 2020.