Protections Improve for the North Atlantic Right Whale
Union of Concerned Scientist sources helped reveal political interference with a rule intended to protect the critically endangered Northern Atlantic right whale from deadly ship collisions. Documents show that that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), along with the Office of former-Vice President Dick Cheney, blocked these protections for more than a year. With only approximately 300 right whales remaining, time is quickly running out for the species.
Last year, more than 3,000 UCS activists called the OMB to demand that the rule be allowed to move forward. A victory for this endangered species was achieved when the OMB relented and allowed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to issue a final rule limiting ship speeds in the right whale's habitat to a far safer 10 knots. Unfortunately, the OMB did exact some concessions from NOAA, reducing the speed limit zone from the 30 nautical mile buffer recommended by NOAA scientists to 20 nautical miles.
