PORTLAND, ME -- Federal authorities spent the past few years analyzing rules for the shipping industry and are now close to releasing fresh guidelines to help protect a vanishing species of whale.
Environmentalists have long pushed for stricter shipping rules to protect the whales, which number less than 340 and are vulnerable to collisions with large ships. They've fallen in population in recent years due to high mortality and poor reproduction. The new rules could expand existing protections for the whales, which are currently protected by a network of"slow zones," requiring mariners to transit slowly to avoid whale collisions.
More than 50 of the whales were struck by ships between spring 1999 and spring 2018, NOAA records indicate. The collisions aren't always fatal, but wildlife advocates have cautioned that sub-lethal collisions can result in the whales becoming less likely to reproduce.