Last month, Ocean River Institute delivered our official request to the Director of NOAA’s Marine Protected Areas department to establish the Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary, along with 4,500 of your signatures and comments! It would be the next addition to our many national marine sanctuaries.
Here’s what we said:
We urge you to establish the Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary, a crucial area that right whales frequent every spring for feeding before dispersing further north and east. The sanctuary, potentially adjacent to and bounded along its Northeast edge by Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, could encompass Cape Cod Bay, the Southeast Channel, Nantucket Shoals, and West to Block Island, covering approximately 6,500 square miles with 200 miles of coastal communities along the shore.
The Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary is a call for collective action, uniting all ocean users and interest groups in a shared mission to enhance management and restore the health of the whales’ habitat. The NMS will work harmoniously with government regulations of ship speeds and lobster trap lines, using communication networks and monitoring. A diverse and inclusive Advisory Council will ensure robust communication between interest groups and provide a platform for open discussions and working groups every quarter.
The problems causing the right whale population to fall are more complicated than stopping ship strikes and entanglements. The seas are changing. For right whales to have a future, it is crucial that we voluntarily modify our behaviors on the water, at home, and in our neighborhoods.
The decline in phytoplankton in the Gulf of Maine, with a 65% decrease in productivity compared to twenty years ago, is a grave concern. Since 1970, the phytoplankton population size has reduced by over 50%. With increasing nutrient pollution and warming surface waters, it is alarming that these tiny plants would slow their growth. The year that this decline was first noted, 1970, is also the year the herbicide Roundup with glyphosate was introduced. In 1996, Monsanto created engineered seeds that can withstand higher amounts of herbicides, and the use of glyphosate increased tenfold.
Warming water is another problem. The summer of 2023 saw a 2-degree above-normal rise in surface ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Maine. The average daytime air temperature was 70 degrees F. During the summer of 2021, when the average daytime air temperature was 73.7 degrees F, surface ocean temperatures did not rise above the ordinary. The science principle is that a cup of coffee cannot be warmed with a hairdryer, no matter how hot the air is. Instead, the cup is heated when placed on a hot plate. Surface water temperatures rose significantly in 2023 because the most rain fell that summer since 1955, and a greater volume of warm stormwater overflowed into the sea.
The problem for ocean life is that too many hot plates, impervious surfaces, and heat islands are on the land. The situation worsens with too much warm freshwater puddling across the sea face. The best way to cool the ocean is with more vegetation and soils holding more water, allowing it to sink into the ground to promote plant growth, recharge aquifers, and maintain river flows during dry periods.
The Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary will bring together diverse interests and ocean users to restore phytoplankton populations, decrease toxins that bioaccumulate, cool ocean surface waters, slow sea level rise, and remediate climate change. By coming together in the Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary and by acting locally in concert with others, we can restore the right whale population for generations to enjoy.
Signed by Rob Moir, PhD, and more than 4,500 individuals and their comments are attached!
I am thrilled that we’ve reached thousands of people who care enough about right whales and New England’s long history of diverse marine life to sign their name and send their comments to the NOAA in support of this new sanctuary.
We still have a lot of work to do to make it happen, but we just took a big step in the right direction!
Steady on,
Rob
