[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 112 (Friday, August 3, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8952-S8953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KERRY (for himself and Mr. Hollings):
  S. 1380. A bill to coordinate and expand United States and 
international programs for the conservation and protection of North 
Atlantic Whales; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, as Chairman of the Oceans, Atmosphere and 
Fisheries Subcommittee, I rise today to introduce the North Atlantic 
Right Whale Recovery Act of 2001. I am pleased to be joined by our 
Commerce Committee Chairman, Senator Hollings in this effort. This bill 
is designed to improve the management and research activities for right 
whales and increase the focus on reducing mortality caused by ship 
collisions, entanglement in fishing gear, and other causes. The most 
endangered of the great whales, the northern Atlantic right whale has 
shown no evidence of recovery since the whaling days of the

[[Page S8953]]

1900s despite full protection from hunting by a League of Nations 
agreement since 1935. Today the population of North Atlantic Right 
Whales remains at less than 350 animals, although 2001 was a banner 
year for reproduction as over 30 calves were born.
  The entire Nation has watched with great interest as a team of 
experts from a number of organizations including the National Marine 
Fisheries Service, the New England Aquarium and the Center for Coastal 
Studies has sought to remove the nylon rope that is imbedded in the jaw 
of a North Atlantic Right Whale, dubbed ``Churchill''. By all accounts, 
unless the rope is removed the whale is likely to die from infections 
that are already discoloring the whale's skin. I would like to offer my 
sincere appreciation for all of these efforts to date and I hope that 
by offering this legislation today that we can refocus our attention on 
how to protect these magnificent mammals.
  Right whales are at risk of extinction from a number of sources. 
These include, ship strikes, the number one source of known right whale 
fatalities, entanglement in fishing gear, coastal pollution, habitat 
degradation, ocean noise and climate change. This legislation requires 
the Secretary of Commerce to institute a North Atlantic Right Whale 
Recovery Program, in coordination with the Department of Transportation 
and other appropriate Federal agencies, States, the Southeast and 
Northeast Northern Atlantic Right Whale Recovery Plan Implementation 
Team and the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, pursuant to the 
authority provided under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act.
  This legislation would require the Secretary of Commerce within 6 
months of enactment, to initiate demonstration projects designed to 
result in the immediate reductions in North Atlantic right whale 
deaths. There are 4 distinct areas that I believe we should be focusing 
our attention on. First, we should develop acoustic detection and 
tracking technologies to monitor the migration of right whales so that 
ships at sea can avoid right whales. Second, we need to continue work 
on individual satellite tags for right whales. This is yet another way 
that we can track whale migration and alert ships at sea of the 
presence of whales and avoid ship strikes. Third, this legislation 
would speed up the development of neutrally buoyant line and ``weak 
link'' fishing gear, so that we can either avoid having whales become 
entangled in the first place or when they do the ``weak links'' break 
and they can more easily become disentangled. Finally this legislation 
supports research and testing into developing innovative ways to 
increase the success of disentanglement efforts.

  This legislation allows for the government to provide fishermen 
``whale safe'' fishing gear in high use or critical habitat areas. This 
is crucial, because once we have developed this ``whale safe'' gear we 
need to get it in the water as soon as possible. I believe an 
assistance program that is fair to fishermen will be needed and we are 
asking the agencies to tell us the potential costs so we can ensure 
that the gear can be deployed where needed.
  This legislation requires the Secretary of Transportation and 
Commerce to develop and implement a comprehensive ship strike avoidance 
plan for Right Whales. I am pleased that a draft plan has been issued 
this week, but I want to make it clear that a plan must be implemented 
by January of 2003. I would like to stress to my colleagues, that by 
far the number one source of know right whale mortalities is ship 
strikes, and in my opinion we have not done nearly enough to prevent 
these lethal ship strikes from happening.
  This legislation establishes a right whale research grant program. 
This program will establish a peer review process of all innovative 
biological and technical projects designed to protect right whales. In 
addition to the scientific community, this peer review team will also 
be comprised of representatives of the fishing industry and the 
maritime transportation industry. It is important that from the very 
beginning we have the input of the people who are on the water every 
day. Their knowledge and experience is absolutely necessary to 
developing innovative practices and techniques to save right whales.
  Congress has appropriated over $8 million dollars in the last two 
years to protect right whales. I believe that now is the time to 
develop a comprehensive plan that spells out what we can do immediately 
to better protect these whales and focus our research efforts on 
innovative ideas and technologies that can identify whale migrations.
                                 ______