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28 Jan 2016 / North Atlantic, USA

Critical Habitat for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale

The National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce issued a Final Rule to replace the critical habitat for right whales in the North Atlantic with two new areas.

The areas being designated as critical habitat contain approximately 29,763 nm \2\ of marine habitat in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank region (Unit 1) and off the Southeast U.S. coast (Unit 2).

NOAA has considered positive and negative economic, national security, and other relevant impacts of the critical habitat. It is not excluding any particular area from the final critical habitat.

NOAA made one change from the proposed rule to the areas designated as right whale critical habitat, extending Unit 2 further to the south to include an area that is a portion of the critical habitat designated in 1994, expanding the area south and increasing Unit 2 by approximately 341 nm\2\. Unit 2 now includes nearshore and offshore waters of the southeastern U.S., extending from Cape Fear, North Carolina south to approximately 27 nm below Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The January 27, 2016 rule, available on the Maritime Exchange NOAA Web page at http://www.maritimedelriv.com/Govaffairs/NOAA/noaa.html, is effective February 26, 2016.

(For information about operations in the USA contact GAC USA at [email protected])

Source: Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay Information dated 27 January 2016

If quoting any content from Hot Port News, please cite GAC Hot Port News as the source.

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