Story at a glance
- A state lawmaker is looking to earmark funds to enhance protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales.
- Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr added an amendment to the state’s budget that would set aside $250,000 to protect North Atlantic right whales from hazards caused by fishing nets and boats.
- The Republican lawmaker said the funds would be used to add an “intensive surveillance process” to mitigate dangerous encounters between fishing vessels and the endangered whales.
A state lawmaker is looking to earmark funds to enhance protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr added an amendment to the state’s budget that would set aside $250,000 to protect North Atlantic right whales from hazards caused by fishing nets and boats, The Salem News reported.
The Republican lawmaker said the funds would be used to add an “intensive surveillance process” to mitigate dangerous encounters between fishing vessels and the endangered whales, according to the outlet.
“If you cannot have traps, you cannot have a fishery, and if those traps are believed to entangle whales, then you cannot have them,” Tarr said.
Tarr’s proposal follows federal guidelines released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week. The new rules include a mandatory speed regulation intended to “reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries to these endangered whales that result from collisions with vessels.”
The North Atlantic right whale is one of three right whale species and classified by NOAA as “one of the world’s most endangered large whale species.” The whales were “hunted to the brink of extinction” a decade prior to the dawn of the 20th century, and fewer than 400 remain.
The patrols would additionally assist the state’s lobster industry — the Massachusetts lobster fishery was shut down for a month in early 2021, the Associated Press reported.
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Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association told The Salem News that there is an undeniable need for elevated presence targeting protection of the species. The patrols would additionally aid the state’s lobster industry, according to the outlet.
“We need more people on the water,” Casoni said. “Right now the environmental police don’t have enough manpower.”
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Published on Jun 01,2021