Feds Withdraw Proposed Vessel Speed Reduction Rule

The vessel speed reduction rule proposed by federal regulators to protect North Atlantic right whales that alarmed Nantucket's ferry operators and would have had potentially devastating effects on the island's economy has been withdrawn.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) posted a notice on the Federal Register Wednesday indicating that "NMFS withdraws this proposed rule in light of numerous and ongoing requests from the public for further opportunity to review and engage with the Agency on the proposal."

For more than two years, Nantucket's ferry operators, fishermen, and municipal officials have been sounding the alarm about the proposed vessel speed restriction intended to protect North Atlantic right whales along the East Coast. The rule would have required most vessels over 35 feet to travel at speeds of 10 knots or less in an area stretching from Massachusetts to North Carolina from Nov. 1 through May 30. That restriction would have effectively ended fast ferry travel to and from Nantucket.

Congressman Bill Keating, who represents Nantucket in Washington D.C., told the Current that he was pleased with the decision to withdraw the vessel speed reduction rule, and said the many comments submitted to federal regulators by residents of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod played a large role in the outcome. Keating also stated that he made an hour-long presentation to officials at the Office of Management and Budget last year outlining and emphasizing the concerns of his constituents.

"I quarterbacked this myself in the office because this was a huge concern and it was a priority to deal with it," Keating said. "Good common sense prevailed. This would have been a change that affected each and every life of anyone who lives on Nantucket and people who are there in the summer, people who work there and commute back and forth. Everyone would have been affected whether it's healthcare or the economy, or kids being able to compete in sports."

Local officials on the island echoed those sentiments and the role Nantucket residents played in the final decision.

"We can breathe a sigh of relief - it's amazing," Nantucket Select Board chair Brooke Mohr said. "It's as good as we could have gotten. It can always come back at some point, but for right now I'm thrilled. I couldn't be any happier and I want to express my gratitude to the community for all the outreach, and all the public input we got. It made a difference." 

Despite the objections from Nantucket, the proposed rule had remained pending through 2024, and last year NOAA had recommended to the Office of Management and Budget that the restriction be implemented, moving it to the final stage in the federal review process.

Federal regulators received approximately 90,000 public comments on the proposed rule.

"Despite its best efforts, NMFS does not have sufficient time to finalize this regulation in this Administration due to the scope and volume of public comments," wrote Samuel D. Rauch, III, the deputy assistant administrator for regulator programs at the NMFS. "NMFS hereby withdraws the August 2022 proposed rule and terminates this rulemaking proceeding."

An economic impact analysis completed by the UMass Donahue Institute last month concluded Nantucket's economy would take a $286 million hit every year and lose as many as 1,500 jobs due to reductions in ferry service if the vessel speed restriction was implemented. The Nantucket Select Board, which commissioned and paid for the analysis, sent the findings to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey last month with an urgent plea for assistance.

Just days later, Healey answered the call with her own letter to NOAA.

"We're grateful to NOAA for listening to our concerns about their proposed changes to the North Atlantic right whale vessel speed rule," Healey said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "This decision is good news for residents and businesses on Cape Cod and the Islands, and we look forward to continuing to work together to protect right whales and the local economy.

Since the rule was first proposed in 2022, the leaders of the Steamship Authority and Hy-Line Cruises have repeatedly emphasized that their vessel captains had never encountered a right whale in Nantucket Sound.

"In the 22 years since we've been running high-speed service for both (Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard) routes - 500,000 trips back and forth between the two islands - during that time none of our crews have documented seeing any right whales in the Sound," Steamship Authority general manager Bob Davis said in 2022.

"This would set back the islands, particularly Nantucket, 50-plus years," Hy-Line Cruises president Murray Scudder said that year. "As currently proposed, this regulation eliminates high-speed service. It would remove us from the equation."

On Wednesday, they applauded the decision by federal regulators to withdraw the proposed vessel speed reduction rule from consideration.

"While we wholeheartedly agree on the necessity of protecting the right whale, we are grateful that the proposed rule has been withdrawn," Davis said. "The current right whale sighting data and decades of our own captains' experience showed that the proposed application of this rule to the waters of Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound was inappropriate and would have been devastating to the economies of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. We appreciate the assistance of U.S. Rep. Keating and many local, state, and federal officials in supporting our opposition to this proposal."

Scudder added: "Certainly it’s a sigh of relief that common sense prevailed and it was a full-court press by a lot of people to pull it out. I'm happy for ourselves, but more importantly, for the whole region and the islands."

Marine mammal advocates, meanwhile, decried the decision to withdraw the proposed vessel speed reduction rule, stating it would have been a meaningful effort to reduce one of the leading causes of death for right whales: vessel strikes. 

“Failing to implement stronger vessel strike protection measures puts these animals at further risk of extinction," said Dr. Jessica Redfern, associate vice president of ocean conservation science at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. "To survive, right whales require immediate, decisive, and effective solutions to protect individuals from preventable deaths." 

“The gross inaction and delays by this administration over the past four years to release this rule is inexcusable,” said Erica Fuller, Senior Counsel at Conservation Law Foundation. “We exhausted every avenue available to us to move this forward as the right whale body count from vessel strikes continued to grow.”

The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium's latest estimate pegs the global population of North Atlantic right whales at 372 individuals, including 12 calves born in 2023, in what the consortium described as a "heartening" increase since the population dipped to 358 four years ago. The group emphasized, however, that the species is still facing "significant ongoing threats" from human activities and that entanglements and ship strikes remain the leading causes of right whale fatalities.

The Nantucket nonprofit group ACK For Whales, which organized to oppose offshore wind developments southwest of the island and believes such projects pose a significant risk to right whales, stated it was not surprised to see the rule withdrawn just ahead of the change in administration in Washington D.C.

"This poorly thought out rule appeared to be a way to feign concern for right whales while allowing the industrialization of their only known year-round habitat," ACK For Whales board member Veronica Bonnet said. "We are not surprised they withdrew this ill-conceived rule days before the administration changes hands."

This is a developing story that will be updated.