Solutions are within reach. Management actions can be taken to reduce the overlap of fishing activity with right whale habitat, and on-demand or “ropeless” fishing systems greatly reduce whale entanglement, while allowing fishermen to continue working. Fishermen in the United States and Canada have already used this technology to harvest more than one million pounds of seafood. We must implement these protections now if right whales are to survive. The US House of Representatives recently passed a measure that would delay any management action to reduce entanglements until 2035. We can't let the Senate enact this into law!

In addition, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is under serious attack on multiple fronts. The federal government has significantly weakened wildlife habitats protections and safeguards for threatened species and has now indicated that it no longer considers the accidental killing or injury of an endangered species as illegal, a shocking reinterpretation of the law. Harm to endangered species almost always happens accidentally and, until now, the ESA held industries and individuals accountable for those foreseeable deaths and incentivized their avoidance. Narrowing the law to intentional harm guts the very core of the ESA. For example, the fishing industry would no longer be help responsible for entanglements of right whales, as the original intention was to catch fish and not kill a whale. In addition, a new proposed bill to make permitting more efficient would greatly weaken ESA protections.

Please tell your representatives to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction by opposing any delay or weakening protections from entanglements and vessel strikes. And please tell them to support a strong Endangered Species Act that prevents accidental harm and protects the habitat of our nation's most vulnerable species.