"The proposed rules would have slowed more ships to prevent collisions with endangered North Atlantic right whales."
"The Biden administration on Thursday withdrew a proposal to expand protections for an endangered whale species. The rules would have required some ships along the Eastern Seaboard to slow down.
North Atlantic right whales, a rare species conservationists have aimed to safeguard, have been injured or killed by collisions with vessels along the East coast. In August 2022, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed rules to lower the risk of whale strikes by expanding existing slow zones and regulating more types of ships. But after bristling public debate over the rules and with just days left in President Biden’s term, the agency canned the suggested change.
The service received over 90,000 public comments on the rule change, according to the agency’s filing, which was published in the Federal Register on Thursday.
“Despite its best efforts, N.M.F.S. does not have sufficient time to finalize this regulation in this administration due to the scope and volume of public comments,” the agency said in the filing."
Simon J. Levien reports for the New York Times January 16, 2025.
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