On January 16, 2025, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) formally withdrew its August 1, 2022, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that sought amendments to the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Strike Reduction Rule that would have had the unintended consequences of endangering pilots, weakening navigation safety, and damaging the maritime supply chain on the East Coast. 

While the American Pilots’ Association (APA)  announced that it welcomes the proposal’s withdrawal, the national association of the maritime piloting profession also made clear it views this not as an end point, but rather as a new opportunity for continued collaboration with NMFS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on innovative ways, including looking at using existing and emerging technologies, to better protect North Atlantic Right Whales (NARW).

“For several years, APA has urged NOAA and NMFS to better leverage technology for NARW protection rather than blanketing the entire East Coast with mandatory 10 knot speed restrictions for vessels as small as 35ft,” said APA President Captain Jorge Viso. “We are hopeful the withdrawal of the 2022 NPRM is a sign NOAA is heeding our advice.”

The proposed amendments, which met bipartisan opposition from Congress and immediate backlash from nearly all segments of the maritime sector (including ports, commercial shipping, pilots, commercial/sport fishing, and recreational boating), would have significantly altered the existing NARW vessel speed regulations in at least three ways, all of which caused APA great concern. First, the amendments would have changed the application of the seasonal 10 knot speed restriction from vessels ≥ to 65ft to vessels ≥ 35ft, which would have captured every offshore pilot boat on the East Coast. Second, NOAA’s proposal would have more than doubled the area of existing Seasonal Speed Zones to nearly 40,000 square miles, covering the entire East Coast (including federally-improved dredged offshore Federal Navigation Channels or FNCs), with mandatory 10 knot speed limits for more than half the year. Third, the proposed rule would have made the existing regulatory navigation safety “deviation clause” (the provision that allows vessels to exceed 10 knots if navigation safety concerns dictate) so bureaucratically cumbersome that it would have been unusable.

In October 2022, APA offered detailed comments to NOAA and NMFS on its NPRM, and in November 2023 provided comments to the Office of Management and Budget. The full text of these comments is available here and here, respectively. In these comments, APA pointed out that “our comments will not merely identify problems with the proposed changes to the VSR proposal but will also offer alternatives that would not only reduce the risks of NARW vessel strikes, but also help protect the lives of pilots and pilot boat crews and also maintain navigational safety in the FNCs and pilot boarding areas.” In these comments, APA proposed that NOAA and NMFS: (1) better utilize technology to collect data necessary for effective establishment of NARW protective zones; (2) exempt pilot boats from the speed restrictions; (3) exclude deep draft vessels operating in East Coast FNCs and pilot boarding areas from the speed restrictions; and (4) change how the use of the navigation safety “deviation clause” is reported.

“Over the two and half years since these proposed amendments to the vessel speed regulations were first published, we have repeatedly made clear that, while APA and our member pilots strongly support common sense measures to protect NARWs, NMFS’ proposal was not well thought out and would have the unintended consequences of endangering pilots, decreasing navigation safety in the entrance channels of East Coast ports, and negatively impacting the maritime supply chain,” said Clay Diamond, Executive Director of the American Pilots’ Association. “We are therefore pleased that NMFS has withdrawn its proposal but remain enthusiastically willing to work with NMFS to address the challenges facing the North Atlantic Right Whale,” Diamond concluded.

APA-member pilots handle virtually all large ocean-going vessels moving in international trade in East Coast waterways, including FNCs. The official responsibility of these pilots is to protect the marine environment, while ensuring the safe and efficient movement of maritime commerce. To fulfill that mission, pilots are required to not only have detailed knowledge of local waters, but also to be expert shiphandlers, and to understand how ships and their pilot boats interact with each other and the elements. As a result, APA is uniquely qualified to provide NOAA and NMFS with recommendations on NARW protective measures that may be considered or implemented in the challenging waters in and around ports.

Captain Viso concluded, “APA considers itself a genuine partner in efforts to protect and restore the NARW population, so we are hopeful NOAA and NMFS will collaborate with APA and consider our suggestions moving forward.”