The tides of change for endangered whales

The League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations, signs two treaties (the 1931 Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, ratified in 1935, and the 1937 International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling), which provide the legal framework for the future regulation of commercial hunting of whales, including North Atlantic right whales.

U.S. and Canadian governments ban commercial whaling in 1971 and 1972, respectively. North Atlantic right whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA, 1972) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA, 1973) in the U.S.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) initiates annual population estimates of the North Atlantic right whale, recording the population that year at 288.

The U.S. designates critical habitats, including portions of Cape Cod Bay and the Great South Channel off Chatham, Mass., as well as an area off Florida and Georgia. Two decades later, this is expanded to two areas – off the coast of New England as a foraging area, and along the southeast U.S. coast from Cape Fear, N.C., to below Cape Canaveral, Fla., as a calving area.

Canada publishes a recovery plan, while the U.S. implements measures to reduce fishing-gear entanglements such as “weak links,” so whales can break free of buoy endlines, and gear marking to improve understanding of how and where whales become entangled.

Canada designates North Atlantic right whales under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

In the U.S., areas where right whales aggregate are closed to fixed-gear fisheries, and sinking lines begin to replace floating lines on the ocean floor, removing thousands of miles of entangling lines from the water column. Additionally, the U.S. implements vessel-speed rule regulations, while moving and narrowing shipping lanes in the Gulf of Maine to further mitigate vessel collisions.

Given the upward population trend (the population peaks in 2011 with 483 whales), scientists increase the Potential Biological Removal (the number of whales that can be removed, while allowing the population to recover) from 0 to 0.9 in 2012. And yet, scientists begin to observe a shift in the whales’ movements, with fewer sightings observed, for example, in the Bay of Fundy.

The NMFS issues a biological opinion for the American lobster fishery, which becomes a focal point in the legal case Center for Biological Diversity v. Ross. The plaintiffs file their suit in 2018, and a ruling in 2020 determines that NMFS violated the ESA and MMPA, necessitating the issuance of a new biological opinion and a proposed rule to amend the ALWTRP.

Scientists observe worrying signals that the North Atlantic right whale population is in fact on a downward trend, with births lagging deaths, as whales continue to shift habitats faster than scientists can track and policies can protect them.

Canada publishes its SARA action plan (revised in 2020).

Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) closes areas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to snow crab fishing and Transport Canada implements vessel-speed regulations, first voluntary and later mandatory.

The U.S. announces a five-year exemption period for nations to comply with the MMPA Import Provisions Rule.

Both countries begin testing “on-demand” or ropeless fishing gear – which uses acoustic devices, rather than ropes and lines, to retrieve gear from the bottom of the ocean. This technology has been years in the making, beginning in 1998, while acoustic devices to retrieve bottom-fishing gear was being considered as early as 1979.

Canada and the U.S. begin annual bilateral meetings. However, despite these policy and management efforts, 2019 becomes the deadliest year on record since the UME began.

NOAA releases its most comprehensive plan to date, the 2021-2025 Priority Action Plan, as part of its Species in the Spotlight initiative. The plan outlines strategies for marine conservation aimed at stabilizing the population of this species.

The U.S. proposes vessel-speed rule changes and implements an emergency rule to seasonally close the “Wedge,” an open area in federal waters adjacent to the MRA, to trap/pot fishing gear. While the U.S. also enacts its MMPA import rule provisions, the country extends the exemption period to Dec. 31, 2025.

The U.S. extends the emergency closure for the Wedge (2023) to permanently include it as part of the MRA boundaries, but those actions are halted by a District Court ruling (2024).

Both countries receive tranches of funding to support right whale protections. In the U.S., US$82-million is to be allocated to NOAA between 2023 and 2026 from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on top of existing budgets. In Canada, the Whales Initiative 2.0 includes $151.9-million in the federal government’s 2023 budget over the same period, but these funds are not exclusive to right whales.

In the U.S., NMFS withdraws its proposed vessel-speed rule changes just before the Trump administration takes office. President Donald Trump issues an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the IRA. Another executive order disbands NOAA’s expert advisory committees, including the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee, established in 1971, which evaluated processes for the ESA and MMPA. The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency begins laying off hundreds of NOAA staff.

Canada is expected to publish its Whalesafe Gear Strategy this summer and a final strategy and federal action plan for its Ocean Noise Strategy later this year.