SHIPS AND SEALING WAX

The Bush administration has stalled a plan to require ships to slow down to protect endangered Atlantic right whales because it says analysis of the rule’s economic impact were incomplete. It should give the same consideration to rules requiring changes in lobster gear.

The Office of Management and Budget, the White House’s financial arm, reportedly is questioning the economic assessment done by the National Marine Fisheries Service in preparing the shipping rules. The plan would have required shipping vessels to cut their speed to 10 knots in areas where right whales are known to be present or where the cetaceans were spotted.

Last year, three right whales were seriously injured or killed, according to NMFS. Collisions with ships were responsible for two of the incidents. From 1975 to 2002, at least 38 right whales have been involved in collisions with shipping vessels. The whales, which are thought to number only about 350, are especially susceptible to ship strikes because they swim near the surface, are slow-moving and are not aware of their surroundings when eating. Shipping lanes into Boston and Saint John, New Brunswick, have been rerouted to try to avoid the whales.

Shipping officials say that slower speeds and longer routes increase costs. While this is likely true, such arguments have not stopped NMFS from moving ahead with requirements that lobstermen change their gear, resulting in a double standard that requires expensive changes by individual fishermen but does not hold a major industry responsible for trying to protect the whales.

Beginning Oct. 5, lobstermen will face fines for not using line that sinks to the bottom of the ocean, presumably out of the way of right whales.

The service went ahead with the rule despite concerns raised by the Office of Management and Budget that NMFS had not adequately assessed concerns that the sinking line would not be practical in some parts of Maine and had underestimated the costs of switching to the new rope.

The Government Accountability Office also found that NMFS had yet to address concerns raised by Maine lobstermen that the sinking line would likely snag on the rocky ocean bottom off portions of the state’s coast. Snagging could lead to more broken line, increasing the amount of rope that right whales could get tangled in. It also would increase costs for fishermen and could put them at risk of being hurt by damaged gear.

Worse, the service did not have a way to assess whether the sinking rope made a difference, the GAO found.

NMFS has committed to changing the rule if new information warrants it. Last year, the Maine lobster industry approved an increase in trap fees to support needed research on where right whales feed in Maine and where they interact with lobster gear.

The weak and incomplete financial analysis of both the shipping and fishing rules are rightly a concern. The delay in the shipping rules shows that regulators should also revisit the fishing rules, as Maine’s congressional delegation has long suggested.