The Trump administration on Friday threw its weight behind a legislative proposal to push new federal protections for North Atlantic right whales to 2035, siding with the commercial fishing industry over conservationists who warn that every year of delay imperils a species now numbering roughly 380 individuals.
A White House memo, released as Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) advances the bill, said President Donald Trump’s senior advisors would recommend he sign the measure into law if it passes Congress. The memo states the administration “strongly supports” Golden’s plan.
The proposal arrives as the National Marine Fisheries Service has already paused any new rules for the whales through 2028. Golden argues that the originally planned regulations — which included gear modifications and seasonal closures — would have “crushed” Maine’s iconic lobster industry and were “based on flawed science and hypothetical scenarios rather than the reality on the water.”
A longer delay, Golden said in a statement Friday, would give the government time to “get the science right” about threats to whales.
John Drouin, vice president of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, said the legislation is “critical to ensuring the long-term stability of American fisheries for generations to come.” Maine’s lobster and crab fishing industries are together worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the docks.
Environmental groups have pushed back forcefully. California-based In Defense of Animals and others cite how the right whale population fell by roughly a quarter from 2010 to 2020, dropping from about 480 to under 360, and how recent years of recovery have been slow. The sleek black whales, which can weigh as much as a midsized bulldozer, die most often after getting tangled in fishing ropes or being struck by ships. Scientists have warned that the whales are straying from protected ocean zones in search of food as the oceans warm, making them more vulnerable.
Some signs about the population have been encouraging. This year’s birthing season produced 23 mother-calf pairs, the most since 2009, the New England Aquarium said in a statement. But the whales, which have been federally protected for more than 50 years, remain critically endangered, the aquarium emphasized. They were once abundant off the East Coast but were decimated during the era of commercial whaling.