Go Slow, Whales Below: - VESSEL STRIKES CONTINUE TO THREATEN NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES

less to reduce the risk of death or serious injury to North These dates align with the expected seasonal migrati on Atlanti c right whales from vessel strikes.⁴ of whales, beginning with their calving season in the southeast United States and ending once many of the The mandatory SMAs are acti ve for a disti nct part of the whales have entered Canadian waters. [...] In 2020, there were 224 extinction, the federal government must update existing North Atlantic right whale sightings in the Gulf of Maine slow zones in time and location, reduce loopholes and between January to March and July to December.⁸ exemptions to the speed limit, and enhance compliance and enforcement across the board. [...] The DMAs/Slow Zones were divided into four known, GFW uses the first three digits of the vessel’s regions: MMSI, known as the Maritime Identification Digits (MIDs), which serves as an identifier of the country • Gulf of Maine (Maine through the tip of Cape Cod, responsible for the vessel.⁴⁹ If the flag is missing from Massachusetts); the registry and the vessel’s MMSI does not have a valid • South. [...] § 224.105(c) transparency of human activities at sea.⁴⁸ The views (allowing for deviations from the 10-knot speed limit to and opinions expressed in this report are those of the maintain safe maneuvering speed and the requirement to authors, which are not connected with or sponsored, enter the deviation into the vessel’s logbook). [...] Both anyone to track vessel speeds in speed zones designed NMFS and Oceana’s findings underscore the immediate to protect North Atlantic right whales along the East need for the Vessel Speed Rule to be updated and Coast of the United States and Canada.⁵¹ Ship Speed improved to reflect current analyses of the danger of Watch uses vessel information from the GFW database.