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In response to today’s hearing on National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association’s proposed changes to its 2008 vessel speed ruling, Jane Davenport, senior attorney with Defenders

Introduced by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the bill would repeal a section of the FY2023 omnibus appropriations bill that significantly delays court-ordered regulatory action under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). This is needed to help prevent the extinction of the North Atlantic right whale in the face of unsustainable lethal entanglements in the American lobster/Jonah crab fishery.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) today introduced the RESCUE Whales Act to repeal a section of the 2022 omnibus that may significantly delay new regulatory action under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act that is desperately needed to ensure the survival and recovery of the North Atlantic right whale in the face of unsustainable lethal entanglements in the American lobster and Jonah crab fishery.

A North Atlantic right whale that washed up dead Sunday was killed by a vessel collision, NOAA Fisheries confirmed today. The results of a necropsy determined the cause of death to be “catastrophic blunt force trauma,” and injuries included multiple vertebral fractures and separations that would have resulted in death shortly after the injury.

In a move welcomed by the conservation community, the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery will no longer seek recertification under the “blue fish tick” ecolabel, a program of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that purportedly assures consumers that products carrying the label come from “sustainable” fisheries.