Emily Mason Remarks-NC Right whale hearing

North Carolina public hearing for the proposed Amendment for the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Reduction Rule

Emily Mason’s remarks

Hi, my name is Emily Mason and I am the Advocate with Environment North Carolina, a policy and action group with the mission to restore and protect the natural world. We have members across the state that put grassroots support behind our research and advocacy, and we are a part of Environment America, which is a national network of 30 state environmental groups.

We are lucky here in North Carolina that every year, Right whale mothers travel south to have their babies. This year, I was excited to hear that 19 calves were born–far fewer than we need if the species is to thrive, but an indication that it still has the capacity to rebound.

But for some of the whales who spent the winter here in the Southeast, they won’t ever make it up to their feeding grounds in New England and Massachusetts, and that’s because they were hit by boats and killed.

This year, three right whales died as a direct result of a vessel strike. One was a calf just a few months old. Another was a mother who had given birth this calving season–a tremendous loss for a species with only around 70 mothers left.

The species can’t survive if we keep killing them. Vessel strikes, alongside entanglements in fishing gear, are the two main causes of Right whale deaths. If we want to save the species, we need to reduce vessel strikes, and the only proven way to do so is by slowing boats down during the seasons we know whales are off our coast.

I am here in support of the proposed vessel speed rule, which will do just that.

A rule requiring vessels 65 feet and larger to go slow when right whales are present has been in place since 2008. The current proposal would expand that rule in a targeted way to address further threats to the species that have been identified since that time, as the whales’ migration has shifted.

Despite a great deal of confusion and misleading rhetoric, the proposed expansion of the rule would only target vessels 35 feet and larger during limited times of the year (which is November 1-April 30 for waters off North Carolina). And It includes an expanded safety deviation to help ensure mariner safety in the case of inclement weather.

This proposed rule has been thoroughly studied by NOAA and subject to extensive public review, and there is no reason to think that there is any inconsistency with North Carolina’s coastal policies.

That completes my remarks. Thank you.