Whale Controversy Continues: The NMMA asks Congress to Fund Technology Research to Monitor the North Atlantic Right Whale

On June 6, the head of the National Marine Manufacturers Association called on Congress to fund research into the real-time technological monitoring of marine mammals, as a way to make sure 63,000 boaters from Massachusetts to Florida continue to have access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Such research is needed as an alternative to a plan by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which wants to impose “regulations representing the greatest restriction of public access to our nation’s cherished waterways in our time,” Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the NMMA, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.

The oversight hearing was about a NOAA proposal that would restrict boats as small as 35 feet to a speed of 10 knots along much of the Eastern Seaboard for long stretches of the year, as a way to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.