The lobster fishing industry is urging the Senate to pass H.R. 9436, and we need your help to stop it.
H.R. 9436 was first introduced by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who’s wedded to the industry, and recently passed the House of Representatives meaning it’s now onto the Senate.
The odious bill would block the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from developing science-based measures to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglement in commercial fishing gear until December 2035.
There is currently a pause on new North Atlantic right whale fishery regulations, including gear and vessel strike rules, until 2028. This bill would swap that language to extend the pause until 2035.
We’re now contacting the Senate, and asking our members to do the same.
You can find your Senators here. We urge you to contact them, expressing your desire for them to vote NO on this bill. New, science-based, species-saving regulations for right whales are needed NOW, not in a decade.
Maine’s lobster fishing industry is trying to convince the Senate to delay right whale protections and extend the existing pause, claiming that NOAA needs more time to research to inform future regulations.
Friends of Animals knows their true motivations, though: that they’d like to continue killing critically endangered right whales and are afraid NOAA will come back with stronger protections in 2028.
This is an issue that cannot wait another day; we can’t afford to kick meaningful regulations down the road. Make no mistake: passing this bill could lead to the North Atlantic right whale’s extinction.
Just last week, in the leaked Dept. of the Interior memo uncovered by the New York Times, the Trump Administration detailed their plans to reinterpret the ESA so that accidentally killing an endangered animal would no longer be considered illegal. In the memo, vessel strikes on whales were used as an example of actions towards endangered species that would no longer be considered illegal.
NOAA, meanwhile, lists vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear as the main threat whales face.
Over 85% of North Atlantic right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once in their life. Entanglements devastate whales. Often, they’re left dragging fishing line for years, inhibiting their ability to properly migrate and feed, and sometimes even killing them.
Only about 380 North Atlantic right whales remain, and they desperately need NOAA’s science-based protections to kick in. They cannot wait.
While we did, and still do, celebrate this year’s North Atlantic right whale baby boom, where 23 calves were born (the highest number since 2009), FoA knows that right whales are still on the brink of extinction and will remain as much without stronger laws to protect them. With a population so small, every birth, death, and life is critical to the species’ future.
On Jan. 28, 2024, a North Atlantic right whale known by scientists as 5120 washed up dead on Martha’s Vineyard. Federal investigators confirmed her death was the result of a chronic entanglement in fishing gear that had painfully embedded in her tail and restricted her growth over the course of 17 months. They concluded that the rope was consistent with the rope used in Maine state water trap/pot buoy lines.
H.R. 9436 would prevent NOAA from issuing updated regulations in 2028, something that would be a nuisance for Maine’s lobster industry, and a death knell for North Atlantic right whales.
Contact your Senator today before it’s too late.