Editor:
A recent letter published in Bryan County News mischaracterized Representative Buddy Carter and his efforts to balance saving the North Atlantic right whale and safeguarding coastal economies and public access to the Atlantic Ocean.
In case you haven’t heard of this issue before now, NOAA is proposing a substantial expansion of its North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Reduction Rule. Under the proposed expansion, boats longer than 35 feet (down from 65 feet) cannot travel faster than 10 knots (11 mph) between Massachusetts and central Florida for up to 7 months out of the year and in some places up to 90 miles offshore.
Rep. Carter introduced a bipartisan bill with his democratic colleague from Alaska, Rep. Mary Peltola, to prohibit NOAA from implementing these new speed restrictions until technological monitoring solutions recently authorized by Congress can help better track whales and avoid strikes. These two coastal representatives from opposite ends of the country know a thing or two about the relationship between healthy oceans and healthy coastal communities.
Rep. Carter rightfully is standing up for Georgians who enjoy recreational fishing and boating and those who work hard every day to bring goods safely into our ports.
No one – from boaters and anglers to harbor pilots to Members of Congress – no one wants to see the North Atlantic right whale go extinct. We cannot let emotions muddy the waters. NOAA got the science wrong when drafting this rule, and the agency needs to make course correction.
The truth is recreational boaters are not encountering right whales as often as NOAA assumes they are. In the last 15 years, there have been five documented lethal strikes of North Atlantic right whales by vessels under 65 feet in length. An analysis of NOAA data found approximately 92 million offshore fishing trips took place in the proposed speed zones since 2008, 5.1 million of those trips were taken by vessels 35 - 65 feet. Assuming all five strikes were from 35 65 foot recreational boats, and that those boats were on fishing trips, the chance of a 35 - 65 foot recreational boat striking a right whale during an offshore fishing trip is at most 0.000098%, or less than one-in-a-million. This analysis does not include the thousands of additional trips unrelated to fishing made by vessels 35 65 feet, dropping the chances of a strike even more.
It is unreasonable to believe expanding the seasonal speed zones to address such a small possibility of vessel strikes is what will save the North Atlantic right whale. It will, however, threaten to eliminate up to 70,000 recreational fishing trips along the Atlantic seaboard, while jeopardizing 340,000 American jobs and nearly $84 billion in crucial economic activity generated by recreational fishing and boating in Atlantic states alone.
Members of Congress, including Rep. Carter, are working to fund a monitoring and mitigation project for North Atlantic right whales authorized for appropriations last Congress. This program would better inform the public where the whales are instead of slowing down boats to a crawl in the tumultuous Atlantic Ocean.
Our federal policymakers have a responsibility to consider every impact of these proposed vessel speed restrictions. And the big picture shows this rule would cause more harm to coastal communities than it would benefit the right whale. Thank you, Rep. Carter, for striving to defend your constituents from burdensome federal restrictions and for searching for real solutions to save the iconic right whale.
Dr. Kyle Christiansen
Editor’s note: Dr. Kyle Christiansen is a former member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council with over 40 years of experience boating and fishing in coastal Georgia waters. He lives in Richmond Hill.