NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service today announced that it is seeking comments by Thursday, July 6 on a petition seeking a rulemaking to establish vessel speed limit restrictions and other mitigation measures in the Rice’s whale “core” habitat area through a year-round 10-knot vessel speed limit in waters 100-400 meters deep from around Pensacola, FL to south of Tampa, FL and an additional 10 km. around the area (“Vessel Slowdown Zone”).
All vessels transiting through the Vessel Slowdown Zone would be subject to the following additional requirements:
- No vessel transits at night
- Vessels transiting must report their plans to NMFS, utilize visual observers, and maintain a separation distance of 500 meters from Rice’s whales
- Vessels at least 65 feet in length must use and operate an Automatic Identification System, or notify NMFS of transits through the zone
- Vessels must report deviations from these requirements to NMFS
The petition was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Healthy Gulf, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, and New England Aquarium.
