WASHINGTON— Conservation groups today filed a motion to intervene to help fight a lawsuit aimed at overturning a seasonal speed rule protecting North Atlantic right whales from deadly vessel strikes. The groups want to defend the rule against a lawsuit brought by a New York vessel owner fined for violating seasonal speed limits. The suit alleges that NOAA Fisheries lacked the statutory authority to issue the rule.

“The speed limit rule is a slender thread protecting North Atlantic right whales from extinction, and if it’s ripped away these majestic animals could plunge into the abyss,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Sensible speed limits to keep pleasure craft and other ships from running over right whale calves and their mothers are absolutely crucial to ensuring these beautiful creatures aren’t wiped off the face of the Earth. Right whales are being attacked by Trump and multiple industry groups, and this is a critical moment for the future of these incredibly endangered whales.”

Fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales remain, with only an estimated 70 reproductively active females. Vessel strikes are one of the two most common causes of death for right whales, along with fishing gear entanglements. In spite of 23 calves being born this year, the population’s current birth rate is not high enough for the whales to recover. Mothers and calves are particularly at risk of vessel strikes because of how much time they spend at, or near, the water’s surface. In 2024 alone, vessel strikes in the Southeast and the mid-Atlantic killed a newborn calf, a juvenile female, and a mother-calf pair. Nonfatal vessel strikes often weaken surviving whales, leaving them with painful wounds.

The vessel owner bringing the case hired a captain to transport his superyacht from New York to Florida. NOAA Fisheries cited the captain for speeding through multiple seasonal management areas, sometimes at more than twice the speed limit, during right whale calving season in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic for more than 283 nautical miles over three days in November 2022.

“The 2008 vessel speed rule is firmly grounded in the science and the law,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “The plaintiff’s suit attacks not only the speed rule but the laws that protect our nation’s cherished wildlife heritage, including imperiled species and marine mammals. If the plaintiff succeeds, it will set the stage for attacks on regulations protecting other species from vessel strikes, including the beloved Florida manatee and the iconic southern resident orca.”

The Trump administration recently announced deregulatory plans to weaken or possibly revoke the 2008 speed rule, which applies to vessels 65 feet and longer (the size of a semi-truck with trailer) in areas critically important to right whale survival, where right whales and vessel traffic overlap seasonally. Instead, the administration has suggested replacing the rule with technologies which, according to a federally commissioned report, have largely been untested and are not known to provide comparable risk reductions.

“The same agency which, just two years ago, wanted to expand the areas covered by the speed rule because their own data indicated the existing rule was inadequate is now proposing to completely remove it?” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, North America. “It seems pretty clear that politics is now a bigger threat to right whales than entanglements and vessel strikes.”

The existing speed limits and areas they cover are based on scientific data. Research has shown they have reduced the risk of fatally striking a right whale by up to 90%. Right whales are notoriously difficult to spot because of their black color and lack of dorsal fins. Although technologies may be developed in the future to enhance right whale detection, no such technologies exist now. Conservation groups have long advocated to expand the 2008 rule based on science showing the need for additional vessel strike protections.

“With lawmakers and the Trump administration trying to delay right whale safeguards for another decade, preserving the Vessel Speed Rule is more important than ever,” said Erica Fuller, senior counsel at Conservation Law Foundation. “This rule is the only one that protects the few remaining right whales from vessel strikes. Weakening it would be a reckless abandonment of our responsibility to protect endangered marine life and the health of our oceans for generations to come.”

The case is in federal district court for the Southern District of New York. The groups seeking to intervene are Defenders of Wildlife, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Conservation Law Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity.