Jul 6, 2023 By The Associated Press 3 min read

Brunswick News. July 5, 2023.

Editorial: Saving right whales doesn’t have to hurt coastal economies

While perhaps anathema to some, the bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter in Congress in June to compel the U.S. Department of Commerce to use technology before speed limits to protect North Atlantic right whales makes perfect sense.

Rep. Carter’s way would help preserve the population of the endangered right whale without NOAA forcing vessels between 35 feet and 65 feet in length to cap their top speed at 11.5 mph. Just as importantly, it would prevent a massive loss of jobs and a major jolt to the economies of states along the nation’s Eastern Seaboard, including Georgia, the coastal Republican’s own state.

“Look, we all want to protect our marine wildlife,” Rep. Carter stated in a weekly newsletter this past weekend. “But if we can do it in a way that is mutually beneficial, we should, and put simply, this rule is unworkable for the American people, especially coastal Georgians, and will do little — if anything — to protect the right whale.”

Rep. Carter touches on “assumptions” of NOAA’s proposed rule that capping the speed limit of recreational and small vessels roughly six months out of the year off Georgia’s coast would prevent collisions with the ocean mammals. He questions that. Recreational boat strikes account for only five whale deaths since 2008, he stated in the letter. “NOAA’s rule is built on the assumption that whales will be safer if recreational and smaller vessels move slower; but, using NOAA’s own data, the likelihood of a vessel under 65 (feet) fatally striking a right whale is one in a million,” Rep. Carter wrote, calling the risk “miniscule.”

What the rule really threatens are jobs. According to the figures provided by the congressman, 27,000 jobs would be at risk directly and indirectly if NOAA’s new rule goes into effect. Nationwide the job loss figure is closer to 340,000.

“We can’t afford to lose $84 billion in economic activity, especially not when the risk of a fatal whale strike is so low,” Rep. Car wrote. “For some small business owners, this wouldn’t just mean a downtick in revenue; they could be forced to close their doors altogether.

Rep. Carter says the rule fails to factor in new technologies that enable boaters to monitor right whales from underwater in real time.

“These upgrades are considerably more effective than speed restrictions and allow businesses to continue thriving alongside the right whale population,” he wrote. “That’s why I introduced a bipartisan bill to pause the funding of this rule until the Department of Commerce can implement these monitoring systems and to give us more time to understand the impact of a vessel speed rule.”

As Congress well knows, any measure that will save a species and jobs is well worth trying.

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