A petition under consideration by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to protect the endangered Rice’s Whales by limiting vessel activity passed the public comment period on July 6, according to Alabama Political Reporter.
The petition — submitted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Healthy Gulf, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth justice, and the New England Aquarium — asks NOAA to impose a 10-knot speed limit and a shutdown of nighttime vessel traffic in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
De Soto Canyon, an area of the Gulf 60 miles off Alabama’s coast and Florida’s panhandle, is the core habitat of Rice’s whales, also known the Gulf of Mexico whale. An estimate of 2018 data suggested 51 individual whales remain in the Gulf, with abundance decreasing. After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill killed 17 percent of the Rice’s whale population, several external threats — oil, marine debris, and vessel strikes — have put the species at high risk of extinction.
The petitioners suggest vessel strikes could be reduced by imposing a 10-knot slowdown zone in waters from approximately Pensacola, Florida to Tampa, Florida. Since Rice’s whales are known to ascend to the upper 15 meters of the water column at night, the petitioners also suggest avoiding nighttime transit in the slowdown zone and maintaining a 500-meter distance from whales sighted.
The Alabama Port Authority objected to the petition. In comments sent on the last day of the period, they argue the measures are not clearly shown to reduce vessel strikes of Rice’s whales. The port operates 24/7, so a night time ban would double traffic during the day, and a speed limit would put more vessels in the bay for longer, putting the whales in more peril. Instead, they argue whale-avoidance technology, such as radar, should be investigated.
The Alabama Port Authority has been monitoring NOAA’s petition to restrict vessel operations in the Gulf for some time, and, as part of the rule-making process, recently submitted comments for consideration by the agency.
A 2021 analysis showed The Port of Mobile contributes $85 billion to the state’s economy. Of that $85 billion, 4.4 billion is direct business revenue generated from handling 41.7 million tons of cargo.