Right Whales Cross Borders – Their Protections Don’t

By Cindy Lowry, Maine Campaign Coordinator for North Atlantic Right Whales, International Marine Mammal Project

While the Trump administration and Congress try to weaken right whale protections, the Canadian government’s approach is much more practical and effective.

A North Atlantic right whale doesn't know where the U.S.-Canadian border is. Every year, they swim through both countries' waters on their way to feeding and breeding grounds. But the protection they encounter can change depending on which side of that invisible line they happen to be on.

Only around 380 North Atlantic right whales are left. Entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships are the two biggest reasons they keep dying. Every whale lost matters for a species this close to disappearing. So it's worth asking: why does one country keep moving forward on protecting them, while the other keeps getting caught in delay?

Canada has built a more adaptive management system around whale detections, including dynamic fishing closures, vessel restrictions, and gear experiments. The U.S. has protections too, but its right-whale policy is currently caught in a more complicated mix of agency rulemaking, litigation, and congressional restrictions on new regulations.

Canada’s Approach to Right Whale Conservation

Canada's fisheries department uses detection-triggered fishing closures in designated dynamic areas, rather than relying only on fixed seasonal zones. Canada also monitors compliance with its vessel restrictions using AIS data, and violations can lead to significant penalties.

Canada has also found ways to let fishermen keep working without giving up on protection. In some shallow-water areas that would otherwise be closed, fishermen can keep fishing if they use modified gear designed to reduce the risk of entangling a whale. The government has also put real money into safer gear, including funding for ropeless fishing equipment that lets boats keep working even when an area would otherwise be closed. Ropeless fishing gear, by keeping the rope coiled within the lobster trap (which is released by the fishermen electronically so they can retrieve their traps) on the bottom, avoids having ropes in the water column that can entangle right whales.

In 2017, a number of right whale deaths in the Gulf of St. Lawrence led the government to take action. Since then, Canada has continued to modify and expand its protections, adding new tools, funding, and gear initiatives rather than putting new measures on hold.

The U.S. Approach to Right Whale Conservation

The U.S. also responds to right-whale detections, but its real-time response is primarily voluntary. When right whales are detected, NOAA can establish temporary “Slow Zones,” asking vessels to avoid the area or slow to 10 knots or less. These Slow Zones are recommendations, not mandatory speed restrictions, and there is no fine simply for failing to follow one. The U.S. does have mandatory 10-knot speed limits in designated Seasonal Management Areas, but those restrictions are based on predictable seasonal whale presence rather than individual whale detections. Even these common-sense solutions are threatened by Congress and the Trump administration.

In the U.S., some of the biggest recent battles over right-whale protections have played out in court, with conservation groups challenging delays or weaker protections and commercial fishing groups challenging restrictions. More recently, conservation groups have had to go to court again to defend an existing speed rule from a lawsuit trying to strike it down.

But the fishing industry has fought back the same way. Industry groups have challenged some of those restrictions in court, arguing that regulators went too far or failed to follow the law. Those legal battles have added another layer of uncertainty to an already complicated regulatory process.

H.R. 9436 would extend a ban on certain new right-whale-related regulations from 2028 to 2035. The bill passed the House Natural Resources Committee 22–13 in July and was advanced through the House Rules process in late August. On Sept. 1st, H.R. 9436 squeaked out of the House floor basically on a partisan vote, with a couple of Democrats, including Maine Representative Jared Golden, that helped Republicans pass the measure. This dangerous legislation is now pending in the US Senate.

In 2024, a right whale died after becoming chronically entangled in Maine fishing gear, underscoring what can be at stake when stronger protections are delayed. IMMP has written more on why right whales can’t wait that long.

Why this matters

Right whales don't have until 2035. Scientists estimate only around 70 of the remaining whales are females still able to reproduce. Every year without stronger protections is a year this species can't spare.

Canada shows that a government can keep tightening protections year after year without freezing progress in place.

The U.S. has the same science, the same urgency, and the same whales passing through its waters. What we don’t have right now is a system willing to keep moving forward instead of regulating and legislating protections and whales into oblivion.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

How to Contact Your Senators in Congress

Here’s how to find the two Senators who represent you. https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Each member has a website where there is either a direct link to the office, an email address, or a phone number.

You can also call your member’s office and leave a message. Call the Congressional Switchboard (202) 224-3121, and ask to be connected.

If you wish to send a letter, you can reach your members with the following addresses:

To Senator…

US Senate

Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Write or call your two Senators and urge them to strongly oppose HR 9436. Right whales and other endangered species need priority protection, or we will lose them forever. Cite your own feelings for the importance of our wildlife heritage.

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You can also help by donating to the protection of right whales, as well as other whales and dolphins around the world. The International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute is working to protect these amazing beings. Please help today with a donation!