There are only 384 North Atlantic right whales left on Earth. And right now, the Trump administration is considering removing some of the few protections that stand between this species and extinction.

Since 2008, NOAA has required large vessels to slow to 10 knots or less in designated Seasonal Management Areas along the U.S. East Coast where right whales migrate and give birth to their calves. These speed limits were put in place to reduce deadly ship strikes, one of the leading causes of death for this already critically endangered species. Scientists and conservation groups say these protections have helped, and NOAA's own compliance monitoring shows the rules are working. In 2022 and 2023 alone, NOAA assessed nearly $950,000 in civil penalties across 56 cases of vessels exceeding these regulations, evidence that the rules are being actively enforced and that violations are already a serious and ongoing problem.

Now, the Trump administration is signaling openness to weakening these speed rules and replacing them with alternative technologies that experts say have not been reliably proven to prevent deadly vessel strikes. The administration should not be rewarding the complaints of boaters who oppose these limited, life-saving regulations by rolling back protections for one of the most endangered species on Earth.

North Atlantic right whales have already survived centuries of commercial hunting, entanglement in fishing gear, and modern shipping traffic. In 2017, when protections were lacking in Canadian waters, dozens of whales died or were seriously injured in a single season, a devastating blow to a population already on the edge. NOAA has officially designated an Unusual Mortality Event for this species since that year, with human interaction, specifically vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglement, identified as the leading cause of these deaths.

The coast off the U.S. state of Georgia is one of the last safe calving grounds for these whales. Right whale mothers and their calves share an intense, year-long bond, with each calf relying entirely on its mother for nourishment, protection, and learning migration routes. Every single calf born is essential to the survival of the species. The death of any mother or calf due to a preventable ship strike is not only a devastating tragedy for the individual families that suffer these losses, it is a blow to the future of a species that numbers only in the hundreds. We cannot gamble with those odds.

Take Action Now

Please join Species Unite in calling on the Trump administration to do the right thing: maintain all existing vessel speed limits, require independent scientific review before implementing any changes, and prioritize proven, precautionary protections for these magnificent and critically endangered animals