Intervention Sought to Protect Endangered Right Whales from Deadly Vessel Strikes

Conservation groups have filed a motion to intervene as defendants on behalf of NOAA Fisheries in a case challenging the agency’s 2008 vessel speed rule protecting North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes. The case, brought by a vessel captain fined for knowingly violating seasonal speed limits, alleges that the agency lacked the statutory authority to issue the rule. Plaintiffs are asking the court to forbid the agency from enforcing civil penalties against the captain and the vessel owner.  

The conservation groups include Defenders of Wildlife, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Conservation Law Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity.

“The 2008 vessel speed rule is firmly grounded in the science and the law,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “An attack on the 2008 vessel speed rule is an attack on the wildlife laws that Congress specifically enacted to save species like the right whale from extinction. It’s life or death.”

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Sea to Shore Alliance/NOAA

The North Atlantic right whale population is declining too fast for birth rates to keep up, with only 370 whales and fewer than 70 reproductively active females surviving today. Vessel strikes are one of two forces driving the species toward extinction, alongside fishing gear entanglements. Mothers and calves are particularly at risk: in 2024 alone, vessel strikes in the Southeast and the mid-Atlantic killed a newborn calf, a juvenile female, and a mother-calf pair. Nonfatal vessel strikes often leave surviving whales weakened, bearing painful scars.

The 2008 vessel speed rule requires seasonal slowdowns for vessels in U.S. waters along the East Coast. The rule sets speed limits for vessels 65 feet and longer in areas critically important to right whale survival, where right whales and vessel traffic overlap seasonally.  

The vessel captain bringing the case knowingly sped a motor yacht over 100 feet long through multiple seasonal speed zones during right whale calving season in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic for more than 200 nautical miles over two days in December 2022.

Speed restrictions are the only way to minimize lethal collisions between large whales and vessels. Right whales are notoriously difficult to spot because of their black color and lack of dorsal fins. Although future technologies may be developed to enhance right whale detection, reduce collision risk, and improve safety for both mariners and right whales, no such technologies exist now. Conservation groups have long advocated to expand the 2008 rule based on science showing the need for additional vessel strike protections.

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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA permit #24359

“This speed rule is the only one that protects the few remaining right whales from deadly vessel strikes," said Erica Fuller, Conservation Law Foundation senior counsel. "Undermining the rule will set a dangerous precedent that risks the survival of endangered right whales and countless other marine mammals and vulnerable species. Our responsibility to protect these creatures extends beyond policy; it’s a commitment to preserving the health of our oceans for generations to come.”

“The speed rule is essential in protecting right whales and its value should be assessed based on the risk they face,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Whale and Dolphin Conservation North America executive director.  “Right whales live in a Hunger Games lottery where the odds of any single boat hitting a whale may be low but the odds of a right whale being struck and killed by a speeding boat are astronomically high.”

“It would be deadly to North Atlantic right whales to take away one of the few protections they have from human-caused threats like ship strikes,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “No one wants to doom a magnificent whale species to extinction, but that’s what could happen if ships speed up and more right whales are hit. The federal government has an obligation to uphold the laws that protect endangered wildlife and right whales clearly need vessel speed limits in their habitat to survive.”  

The case is in federal district court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. The conservation groups are represented by Jane Davenport of Defenders of Wildlife, Erica Fuller of Conservation Law Foundation, and Kristen Monsell of the Center for Biological Diversity.