HUFFINGTON POST • December 16, 2022
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is pushing for a provision in the massive government funding bill that could further endanger the already precarious North Atlantic right whale. In July, a federal judge ruled that a 2021 regulation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which established new requirements for lobster traps in an effort to reduce the risk of those traps entangling and harming or killing whales, didn’t go far enough. The judge has since given federal regulators until 2024 to come up with what are expected to be even stricter rules to safeguard the imperiled whale. Collins’ provision, which has not yet been introduced, seeks to block those regulations.