- Mayer ironically pointed out that companies and vessels involved with wind power in the Atlantic Ocean are allowed incidental take permits for whales and marine mammals, ex., one gets caught in a net, etc., and once they meet the threshold, they need to stop work.
- “So, they legally interfere with marine mammals, and there's a threshold that once they meet the threshold, they need to stop at work, but the fact that they gave that industry limited take permits for marine mammals and now they're going to try and make us do 10 miles an hour when we don't have any interaction at all.”
The North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) Vessel Strike Reduction Rule, proposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), would restrict vessels greater than or equal to 35 feet (10.7 m) and less than 65 feet (19.8 m) in length to 10 knots (roughly 11 mph) along much of the Eastern Seaboard during the whales’ migration and calving season, from November to May
If enacted by the Biden Administration, the rule would deal a devastating blow to businesses and tourism along the East Coast, from Massachusetts to Florida, including North Carolina.
Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), told Carolina Journal in a phone interview that NARW would put 812,000 jobs at risk and have a tremendous impact on the $84 billion coastal economy, including the recreational boating industry’s $9.1 billion impact in North Carolina, which includes over 1,000 businesses and 28,000 jobs, including Regulator Marine of Edenton, and Bass Pro Shops and White River Marine Group, which purchased Hatteras, Inc. of New Bern.
He added that there are 384,000 registered boats in North Carolina, with annual boat sales revenue reaching into the billions of dollars — and that’s without including the economic impact of tourism.
The federal rule would also shut down all fishing tournaments during the migration time frame and create downstream impacts on restaurants and hotels.
Mommicked
One of the businesses threatened by the proposed regulation is Fishin’ Frenzy, owned and operated by Capt. Greg Mayer of Nags Head. Fishin’ Frenzy runs offshore fishing charters out of the Oregon Inlet year-round. His charter fishing business was featured for a decade on National Geographic’s Wicked Tuna.
Mayer currently runs 150-200 trips a year, traveling 35-50 miles offshore at 20-23 knots, each trip, for a 10-hour charter. If the whale rule took effect, that 10-hour trip would turn into 14 hours, taking 25-30% of his business with it, and adding costs to each trip.
“We’ve got people paying nearly $3000 to go fishing, and they want to get as much fishing time as they can,” Mayer told CJ in a phone interview. “It’s more travel time than fishing, and that would cause a lot of people not to book us. It’s a problem up and down the coast, but here it would be a particular problem because we’ve got such a long season, and we still have a lot of boats that are fishing in the wintertime, and that would really affect me.”
He said he has already had calls from concerned customers about fishing next spring when they heard about the proposed rule, saying they wouldn’t be interested in spending more than half of the trip in transit.
Mayer said the rule would affect not only his business, but also have a ripple effect on fuel sales, bait sales, tackle, mechanics, and more. Like any node of commercial activity, fishing along the Carolina coast is just one part of an interconnected economy.
“To me, it’s (NARW) like I heard there’s a squirrel that’s endangered in Idaho,” he said. “I think you should drive 5 miles an hour on the highway, so you don’t hit the squirrel, but people in Idaho are going to say, well there’s not a problem with the squirrel. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Oh, I know what I’m talking about here. This is what I do for a living.”
Mayer said he has been running his boat out of Oregon Inlet for the last 25 years and has been on boats offshore for the last 45 years. He has only seen two right whales in his entire career and knows of only one boat that ever hit a whale.
Mayer ironically pointed out that companies and vessels involved with wind power in the Atlantic Ocean are allowed incidental take permits for whales and marine mammals, and once they meet the threshold, they need to stop work.
“When this originally came up, and I got on the NOAA site to put my public comment in, I looked and every company, every vessel involved with wind energy has an incidental take permit for whales and for marine mammals,” he said. “So, they legally interfere with marine mammals, and there’s a threshold that once they meet the threshold, they need to stop at work, but the fact that they gave that industry limited take permits for marine mammals and now they’re going to try and make us do 10 miles an hour when we don’t have any interaction at all.”
Double Standard
Mayer said whale strandings have been reported more frequently in the last two to three years, even though they have been happening for a very long time.
“There’s only one thing that’s changed,” he said. “The fact that there’s more research out there, more survey boats, more construction, and these whales are ending up dead. It’s kind of funny that now, instead of policing that a little bit more, they just want to put out a blanket speed limit for an entire sector of the marine industry that really doesn’t have any interaction with whales at all.”
The US Department of Commerce advanced the NARW to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in March, and Hugelmeyer said the White House may take action on the rule before May 22 because it is eligible for the Congressional Review Act after that date.
He advises anyone who is concerned about the rule taking effect to call their member of Congress or the White House.
Carolina Journal reached out to Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, current Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor, Josh Stein, and current Lt. Gov. and Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson for comment on the seriousness of the matter to North Carolina businesses. A spokesman for Robinson was the only to respond.
“This is yet another example of the Biden-Stein agenda that puts far-left political activists ahead of helping our communities grow and thrive,” the Robinson spokesman said. “If implemented, this overly burdensome rule could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact up and down the East Coast – including right here in North Carolina, which would be absolutely devastating for our coastal communities already struggling under the weight of Bidenomics. As governor, Mark Robinson will stand up to President Biden’s far-left agenda and fight extremist policies like this that threaten jobs that are vital to North Carolina’s economy.”
Mayer said those involved in the rule-making really need to take a step back and consider the facts, including all of those that the rule would have a devastating impact on.
“Well, I just think that before they try to shove this regulation down our throats, which seems like it happens a lot, they need to look at the people and the industries that are being affected by it,” said Mayer.