NOAA proposes rule change to protect North Atlantic right whales

Doug Hauck owns a 22-foot boat and says that he understands protecting North Atlantic right whales, but doesn’t agree with NOAA’s proposed rule change.

The new rule would include boats from 35 to 65 feet, limiting them to 10 knots in “seasonal management areas” along the east coast, from Massachusetts to central Florida, at different times of the year, for up to 7 months. In some places that could extend up to 90 miles off shore to avoid endangered right whales.

Doug Hauck noted how “a 35-foot boat is very maneuverable, and when a 35-foot boat is running it doesn’t really draft that much water. I don’t think it will have that much of an effect.”