We have some wonderful news to share if you haven’t heard yet:
The Biden-Harris Administration has announced over $9 million toward partnerships to conserve and recover North Atlantic right whales!
This is part of another round of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, earmarked for technology, partnerships, monitoring, and modelling aimed at rescuing right whales from the brink of extinction.
Since a remarkable 85% of all right whales will experience entanglement in fishing gear over the course of their lives, NOAA Fisheries is supporting the development of on-demand or “ropeless” alternatives to traditional line and buoy systems. Traditionally, a buoy floats at the water’s surface with a line connected between it and the cage trap sitting on the ocean floor. That much line is a huge danger to whales and most end up caught in it at some point in time.
New technology and design are creating viable fishing systems like pop-up buoys, inflatable lift bags, and buoyant spools which use less line less often. And the line is also retrievable when the trap is ready to be harvested.
To complement that investment, funding will also be directed toward better population monitoring and computer modelling practices to determine geographic distribution, movement, migration, and more. This information will be especially useful to help decrease vessel strikes, the other leading cause of death for right whales, after equipment entanglements.
And all of this is part of a larger $82 million package announced a year ago aimed at helping to recover right whales as part of climate change mitigation and environmental restoration funds from the Inflation Reduction Act.
We’re thrilled to see these dollars go to work and start making a difference in the lives of our right whale friends. This is a big step forward of many needed to ensure a safe, thriving environment for right whales across the North Atlantic and right here in our backyards along the Eastern seaboard.
Steady on,
Rob
