PROVINCETOWN, Mass., — December 7, 2013 — The National Marine Fisheries Service will make it a permanent requirement that large ships slow down in Atlantic coast areas where North Atlantic right whales breed and feed.
The federal agency posted its preliminary ruling Friday online and will make it official Monday when the current five-year regulation expires. All aspects of the rule remain in place until circumstances warrant further changes, according to the ruling.
There are 510 right whales in the world, according the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, which compiles population estimates from the latest research. Cape Cod Bay and waters north and east of Cape Cod are feeding areas.
Whale conservation groups contend that ship strikes, fishing gear entanglements and climate change are the whales' greatest threats.
"It's a huge thing," Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Plymouth, said Friday. "It really is going to give the species an opportunity to recover."
The slow-down rule restricts vessels 65 feet or longer to not more than 10 knots in certain locations at certain times of the year along the Atlantic coast.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times