[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19713]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 19713]]

  INTRODUCTION OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE RECOVERY ACT OF 2001

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                        HON. WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 11, 2001

  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the North 
Atlantic Right Whale Recovery Act of 2001 which will coordinate and 
expand United States and international programs for the conservation 
and protection of North Atlantic Whale. 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 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.
  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 because ship strikes are the leading cause of 
right whale mortalities. The plan incorporates the Mandatory Reporting 
System which I helped shepherd through Congress in 1997. This system 
requires large vessels traveling through designated critical right 
whale habitats to contact area Coast Guard authorities. Ship pilots 
report course, speed, location, destination and route and are alerted 
to the presence or nearby whales. The system has helped mariners to 
better navigate away from these endangered animals. Through this 
legislation, the reporting system will be improved to include the 
collection and analysis of data on traffic patterns and ship strikes.
  This legislation also 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 believes 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.

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