A young whale was minding its own business off the coast of South Carolina when suddenly a ship sped in out of nowhere.
The vessel crashed into the weeks-old North Atlantic right whale calf, leaving it severely injured.Sadly, this collision could have been prevented if the ship had been obeying mandatory speed laws. These mandatory slow zones were implemented specifically to
protect ocean wildlife, including critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. But, like 80% of other boats in the area, this vessel violated the speed caps. Sign the petition to demand proper enforcement of these speed zones!These whales are so terrifyingly endangered,
only 356 remain alive in the wild. Of those, only around 70 are females who are able to breed. Calving rates are incredibly low, meaning every single individual whale is critical to their species' survival. Even one boating collision is a huge disaster for this population.
And now, one young calf is on the verge of death due to a reckless boat that broke speed laws.
Reducing boat speeds is vitally important for keeping these endangered animals alive. A whole collection of different studies have demonstrated that, when large boats reduce their speeds to 10 knots, it cuts the risk of killing a North Atlantic right whale by 80-90%.
But implementing a policy to protect endangered species does nothing if authorities don't put in the effort to properly enforce those regulations.Tell the U.S. federal government to enforce the mandatory speed zones, and save North Atlantic right whales from extinction!