But The Boats are going to fast off shore!

[Silentweapon338]

[Silentweapon338]

[PharmHunter]

Nope can't be. It's definitely us rednecks riding in the fast boats.

[Fish]

Meanwhile...Pg.-14.png

OCEAN CITY – While it remains to be seen if a proposed federal rule change to reduce offshore speed limits for recreational and commercial vessels comes to fruition, the Biden administration this week denied a petition to institute the changes immediately.

In an effort to save endangered North Atlantic right whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has proposed a 10-knot speed restriction for recreational and commercial vessels 35 feet in length or greater, down from the current 65 feet. The proposed rule change would expand the go-slow zones to include virtually the entire east coast out to a 90-mile radius and extend the zone restrictions to as many as seven months of the year.

NOAA has yet to make a final decision on the proposed rule change, but national environmental advocacy group Oceana and other conservation groups in December filed an emergency rulemaking petition seeking an immediate implementation of the proposed 10-knot rule. However, this week the Biden administration, through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) denied the emergency petition to immediately implement the proposed 10-knot rule change.

The denial does not necessarily mean the proposed rule change is dead. Instead, NMFS officials have reportedly said the agency does not have the resources to effectively implement emergency regulations while the decision on the longer-term rule change is still being explored. Instead, NMFS officials have said the agency continues to work with vessel operators to get voluntary slowdowns, at least while the right whale calving season is in full swing.

Right whales begin giving birth to calves around mid-November until mid-April and their calving grounds are typically in the warm water off the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida, although they migrate through the mid-Atlantic area on their way to the calving grounds. Pregnant females and mothers with nursing calves are particularly vulnerable to vessel strikes because they much of their time near the surface of the water, according to published reports.

There are currently only about 340 right whales in existence, a number that has steadily declined in recent years. The population is down to about 70 reproductive females, according to published reports.

“Instead of doing what is necessary to protect North Atlantic right whales, NMFS is turning its back on this critically endangered species,” said Oceana Campaign Director Gib Brogan. “Their refusal to take immediate action continues the agency’s history of delays and leaves new mothers and calves in danger. These whales are particularly vulnerable to boat strikes because they spend their time at the water’s surface. In just that last week, half a dozen right whale sightings have occurred outside of existing protection areas and none of the whales in the southeast region are protected from smaller boats that can and do kill right whales. The government’s own assessment clearly shows that more needs to be done for this species to reduce the risk of whale mortality.”

The Center for Biological Diversity took it a step further in criticizing the president’s administration for failing to take appropriate emergency action.

“I’m outraged that the Biden administration won’t shield these incredibly endangered whales from lethal ship strikes,” said Center for Biological Diversity Oceans Program Legal Director Kristen Monsell. “This is an extinction-level emergency. Every mother right whale and calf is critical to the survival of the species. Protecting right whales from vessel strikes is even more crucial after the Senate’s recent omnibus bill, which delayed efforts to curb right whale entanglements in lobster gear.”

The proposed rule change could severely damage the local fishing industry. While the proposed rule change would only be in effect from Nov. 1 to May 31, which is just on the shoulders of the recreational fishing season locally, the 10-knot rule could be applied at any time by NOAA if a right whale was spotted in the fishing grounds off the coast.

The local fishing community, along with fishing advocacy groups up and down the east coast, from the beginning have railed against the proposed 10-knot rule change. While all agree protecting the endangered species is important, there is limited data suggesting vessel strikes are contributing to mortality rates for the species. For example, according to NOAA’s own data, there have only been 12 lethal right whale vessel strikes since 2008, five of which have come from vessel’s under 35 feet. From NOAA’s own data, the chance of a vessel striking a right whale, considering the sheer volume of boat traffic in the prescribed zones for the rule change, is about one in a million.

Nearly all the local fishing grounds frequented by recreational and commercial fishermen would fall under the 10-knot rule. Operating a vessel at a maximum of 10 knots would add several hours to a typical charter or private fishing trip.

Charters targeting billfish, tuna and dolphin, for example, often chug nearly 100 miles to reach the canyons offshore and leave well before sunrise and return in the evening. It’s often a three-hour-plus ride to reach the offshore canyons without any 10-knot maximum speed in place. To put it in perspective, one knot is equal to around 1.15 mph. A 100-mile trip to the canyons offshore would take two or three times longer than usual under normal circumstances.

https://mdcoastdispatch.com/2023/01/...gency-request/

[wdhigh]

We need more marine biologists!

IMG_0001.jpeg

[SouthernWake]

How’s it killing them? Lot of accusations and not much explanation up there.

I have the mental image of them free Willy-Ing into a fan blade.

[Featherduster]

I saw an article that mentioned high decibel pile drivers having some effect

[WoodieSC]

expand the go-slow zones to include virtually the entire east coast out to a 90-mile radius

If international waters begin at the 12 mile mark, how can they enforce a 10 knot speed limit past that point?

SouthernWake - Here's a couple of interesting articles on the effects of sound on ocean mammals/whales.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/featu...es-world-sound

The section "Clues to a whale mystery" in the latter half of this second article is particularly insightful from the standpoint of the net effect of some circumstances.

https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature...le-strandings/

[centurian]

I could care less about whales. The whole renewable energy scheme is bull shit. It is not renewable and the costs outweigh the benefit times 100. What happens to those wind farms in a hurricane. How long do the turbines and solar farms last? Less than 10 years. I am also sure there are some eco hazards around the solar farms too.

[DRDUCK]

But the news media is also a part of the scandal. They will not report this~~ FJB

[TXFowler]

So USCG running radar guns at the jetties now? Gimme a break.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thawhacker]

So there wind turbines in the ocean
Didn’t know that

[WoodieSC]

I could care less about whales. The whole renewable energy scheme is bull shit. It is not renewable and the costs outweigh the benefit times 100. What happens to those wind farms in a hurricane.

Totally agree with you on this, except on the whales. There's no reason to sacrifice them, so if their deaths can be used to limit or halt these wind farms, great!

How long do the turbines and solar farms last? Less than 10 years. I am also sure there are some eco hazards around the solar farms too.

I don't know about the lifespan of a wind farm, but I recently did some looking at solar farms because someone up here is looking at selling their land to a company that wants to build a 600 acre solar farm. Many of us are against that, but the only real environmental issue info I could locate has to do with about 20 years out when the panels supposedly have reached the end of their lifecycle. At that point there can be some very serious chemical leaching into groundwater if they aren't disposed of "properly". The problem at this point appears to be that there's no currently known means to recycle any of the components, and nobody seems to know what to expect in "20 years". The only smart thing being done is that if it moves forward, the County is going to require a bond for the future disposal coverage.

So there wind turbines in the ocean
Didn’t know that

Yes, and the snobs up in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard (Barry Hussein and company) don't want any wind turbines in their views of the ocean.

[Smilee]

Martha’s Vineyard Elec Coop owns turbines that are being installed now. Should be online in next few months. Electrical platform was set in place about a month ago.

Neat project to work on as I assisted with generator and switchgear controls.

[Pass shot]

How’s it killing them? Lot of accusations and not much explanation up there.

I have the mental image of them free Willy-Ing into a fan blade.

That's funny

[WoodieSC]

Martha’s Vineyard Elec Coop owns turbines that are being installed now. Should be online in next few months. Electrical platform was set in place about a month ago.

Neat project to work on as I assisted with generator and switchgear controls.

Interesting. It wasn't all that long ago that I remember reading about their NIMBY whining. Maybe Teddy "Killer" Kennedy's death helped change things.

[Smilee]

Look up Vineyard Wind

[DRDUCK]

Smilee know his stuff! Trust me!

[Saltydog235]

I could care less about whales. The whole renewable energy scheme is bull shit. It is not renewable and the costs outweigh the benefit times 100. What happens to those wind farms in a hurricane. How long do the turbines and solar farms last? Less than 10 years. I am also sure there are some eco hazards around the solar farms too.

I care about the whales, they are cool to see.

Would love to have some rigs like in the GOM, dang that’s an amazing fishery.

They can mail me my speeding tickets, the only time you’ll find me going slow is the break in period when the new ones are hung.

[Silentweapon338]

How’s it killing them? Lot of accusations and not much explanation up there.

I have the mental image of them free Willy-Ing into a fan blade.

There has been plenty of documentation of wind farms causing health issues for humans. There is an ultra low frequency that is imiditted from the turbines spinning. It's been know ULF can have negative effects on humans for some time, no one knew these things would give them off. There have been several law suits to compensate people defected by them in the mid west and in some areas they had to shut them down and move them x miles from any humans house.

Whales are extremely sensitive to acoustics. Much more so than we are.

So take the existing turbines emitting ULF, and combine that with the equivalent of standing on the front row of an AC/DC concert non stop and cant get away from it in the form of the jack hammers they use to install these things and you literally torture the whales to death.

Meanwhile Germany is a no go on nuclear power, but is tearing down their wind turbines so they can get back to their coal fields.

I disagree with them on the Nuke part, but there are lessons to be learned here. Scrap the wind turbines now.