What would the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act mean for North Atlantic right whales?

Published September 26, 2026

H.R. 9436 would push back, from the end of 2028 to the end of 2035, the date by which federal regulators must put stronger right whale protections in place for New England's lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. Until then, a 2022 law treats the existing 2021 rules as full compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The House passed it 219 to 196 on September 1, 2026; it is now with the Senate.

The bill is one sentence long: it replaces the year 2028 with 2035 in an existing law. For a whale that NOAA Fisheries counts in the hundreds, and that can lose less than one animal a year to human causes and still recover, seven years is not a technicality.

What does H.R. 9436 actually do?

The text passed by the House has two sections. The first names it the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026. The second amends section 101 of division JJ of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (16 U.S.C. 1387 note) "by striking ``2028'' each place it appears and inserting ``2035''."

To see what that means, you have to read the law it amends. Division JJ, titled "North Atlantic Right Whales," was added to the year-end spending package Congress passed in December 2022 (Public Law 117-328). Its section 101 says that, until December 31, 2028, the 2021 final rule amending the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan "shall be deemed sufficient to ensure that the continued Federal and State authorizations of the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries are in full compliance" with the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The words "notwithstanding any other provision of law" come first.

In plain terms: for those two fisheries, the question of whether the federal whale rules are strong enough was answered by Congress, not by regulators or courts, for six years. The same section gave the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) three jobs for that period:

• promote new gear technologies with the states and the industry, "in order to implement additional whale protection measures by December 31, 2028";
• write new regulations for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries, consistent with both Acts, that "take effect by December 31, 2028";
• send Congress an annual report on the whales, the plans to keep deaths and serious injuries below potential biological removal by 2028, the injuries by fishery and country, and how much of the fleet has moved to new gear.

The date appears four times in that section, and H.R. 9436 changes all four. The safe harbor, the new-gear target, the deadline for new rules and the reporting target would all move to December 31, 2035. There is one carve-out in the original law that the bill does not touch: the safe harbor does not apply to an emergency rule that was already in place when the 2022 law was enacted, or to any action to extend or finalize it.

Where is the bill now?

Representative Mike Lawler of New York introduced it on June 24, 2026, with Representative Jared Golden of Maine. According to the House Natural Resources Committee report (H. Rept. 119-766), the committee took it up on July 15, 2026. It adopted a substitute text offered by Golden by voice vote, which added the short title, and rejected an amendment from Representative Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island by 14 votes to 21. The committee then voted 22 to 13 to report the bill, and the report was filed on August 27.

The full House passed it on September 1, 2026. The roll call was 219 to 196, with 17 members not voting. Republicans voted 209 to 2 in favor; Democrats voted 193 to 10 against, and the one independent voted no.

The Senate received the bill on September 14, 2026 and referred it to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It is not law. It would need to pass the Senate in the same form and be signed by the President. If nothing passes, the 2028 dates in the 2022 law stand.

Why do supporters say the delay is needed?

The committee majority's case rests on the fishery. The report describes the Maine lobster fishery as one of the oldest in the country, landing more than 100 million pounds a year, worth more than $1 billion to the state's economy and employing more than 5,600 lobstermen (figures the report takes from the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative). It says the fishery "has faced crippling regulatory uncertainty" and that Maine's delegation held that the rules planned in 2022 "would cripple the lobster industry."

Its specific argument is about timing and data. The report says testimony at a subcommittee hearing on July 22, 2025 showed that the take reduction team's timeline for new regulations "does not comport with the State of Maines timeline for collecting the better data necessary to inform workable regulations." Extending the deadline to 2035, in the majority's words, would let regulators write rules "based on the most up-to-date and complete scientific information."

Why do opponents say it puts the whale at risk?

The same report carries dissenting views signed by Representative Jared Huffman, the committee's ranking member. They describe the bill as "effectively creating a 13-year waiver" from the two Acts, counting from the end of 2022 to the end of 2035, and call it a congressional "God Squad" waiver, a reference to the cabinet-level committee that can exempt projects from the Endangered Species Act.

Their argument has three parts. First, the numbers: according to the dissent, current science says the species "can afford only 0.7 whale deaths per year due to human causes if it is to recover." Second, the incentive: the dissent says Congress has appropriated about $280 million for right whale recovery since the end of 2022, including $20 million for new fishing technology, but that "much of the lobster and Jonah crab industry has not participated" in large-scale adoption, and that a longer delay "would reduce incentives to test and deploy innovative fishing technologies" while disadvantaging fishermen who have already switched. Third, oversight: the dissent says NOAA Fisheries "has ignored its mandate to report to Congress" as the 2022 law requires.

The dissent also records recent cases: as of August 2026, a three-year-old and a four-year-old right whale had died after chronic entanglements, and a five-year-old was still entangled, with scientists expecting it to die of its injuries.

How many North Atlantic right whales are left?

NOAA Fisheries estimated in October 2025 that there were 384 North Atlantic right whales alive at the start of 2024, give or take about ten, and about 70 reproductively active females. The agency describes that as an increase of about 20 animals since 2020. The species has been listed as endangered under US law since 1970, and our North Atlantic right whale dossier records it as Critically Endangered on the IUCN scale, with international trade banned under CITES Appendix I.

The whales are large, slow and coastal. NOAA's species profile gives adults up to 52 feet and 140,000 pounds and a lifespan of up to 70 years. They feed in the Gulf of Maine and further north, and give birth in the shallow coastal waters off North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. That route runs through some of the busiest shipping lanes and most heavily fished waters on the East Coast.

What is killing right whales?

Entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with vessels. Since 2017, NOAA Fisheries has run an Unusual Mortality Event investigation for the species, a formal status for die-offs that are unexpected and significant. Its tally, last updated on July 14, 2026, counts 176 whales: 43 found dead, 41 seriously injured (meaning they are likely to die), and 92 with sublethal injuries or illness. NOAA says the whales in the event represent more than 20 percent of the population, and that research suggests only about a third of right whale deaths are ever documented.

Of the 43 deaths, NOAA attributes 15 to vessel strikes and 11 to entanglement; most of the rest were not examined or had undetermined causes. Among the living, the pattern flips. Of the 41 seriously injured whales, 37 were hurt by entanglement, and of the 92 with sublethal harm, 63 were entanglement cases. Rope is what most of the injured whales are carrying.

For 2026 so far, the table lists six cases: two deaths (one from entanglement, one with the cause pending), two serious injuries from entanglement, and two sublethal injuries, one from a vessel and one from gear.

This is bycatch in its most literal form. Nobody fishing for lobster wants a whale. The whale swims into the vertical lines linking traps on the seabed to surface buoys, and the rope wraps around its mouth, flippers or tail.

What are the 2021 rules the bill would keep in place?

The rule the 2022 law "deemed sufficient" is 86 FR 51970, published on September 17, 2021. It amended the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, the rulebook for trap and gillnet fisheries that has existed since the late 1990s and is shaped by a take reduction team of about 60 members, roughly 22 of them fishermen or their representatives.

The 2021 rule set out to cut the risk of death and serious injury to right whales from Northeast lobster and Jonah crab trap fisheries by at least 60 percent. It did this with fewer vertical buoy lines (more traps on each string), weak rope or weak inserts designed to break so an entangled whale can pull free, and new or expanded seasonal restricted areas. NOAA explained the target in the rule: an average of five entanglement deaths and serious injuries a year were documented from 2009 through 2018, most of which could not be traced to either country, and a 60 percent cut was needed to bring the US share below the potential biological removal level then in use, 0.8 whales a year. The agency also said an 80 percent reduction would be needed if the estimated unseen deaths were counted, and that the team focused on the lower target.

So the 2021 rule was built to reach the lower of two targets. The 2022 law froze it as the legal standard until 2028; H.R. 9436 would add seven years.

What is potential biological removal?

Potential biological removal, or PBR, is the Marine Mammal Protection Act's yardstick: the largest number of animals that can be removed from a stock by human causes each year while still allowing it to reach or stay at a healthy level. For most whale and dolphin stocks it is a few animals or more. For the North Atlantic right whale it is below one. NOAA used 0.8 a year in the 2021 rule; the dissenting views on H.R. 9436 cite 0.7.

A PBR below one means, in practice, no human-caused deaths at all in most years. The 2022 law tied its annual report to measures "expected to not exceed Potential Biological Removal" by the deadline, and the bill moves that target to 2035 as well.

What does the bill not change?

Several related rules are on separate tracks.

• The vessel speed rule. Since 2008, most vessels 65 feet or longer must slow to 10 knots or less in seasonal management areas along the East Coast (50 CFR 224.105). H.R. 9436 does not touch it. That rule is under review separately: on March 4, 2026, NOAA Fisheries published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking considering "possible deregulatory action" to replace the seasonal speed limits with alternative management areas and technology-based strike avoidance. Comments closed on June 2, 2026. No proposed rule has followed yet.
• Critical habitat. The 2016 designation of about 29,763 square nautical miles in the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and off the Southeast coast stays as it is. On July 22, 2026, NOAA Fisheries rejected a petition to add migratory habitat, finding that it did not present substantial scientific information that the change may be warranted.
• The whale's listing. The right whale stays endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Deliberately harassing, hunting or capturing one is still illegal. What the 2022 law changed, and the bill would extend, is how the government judges whether two specific fisheries have done enough to avoid accidental harm.
• Other fisheries and Canada. The safe harbor names only the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. Canadian fisheries, where right whales also feed and are also entangled, are governed by Canadian rules.

Is anyone still testing whale-safe gear?

Yes. On September 14, 2026, NOAA Fisheries published a notice that it is considering an exempted fishing permit for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. It would let up to 65 boats, up to 7 of them gillnetters and the rest trap and pot boats, test acoustic on-demand, timed and spring-release systems, the gear often called ropeless or on-demand, in Lobster Management Area 1, all of Maine's lobster zones and three Gulf of Maine gillnet areas, from January 1 to December 31, 2027. The exemption is needed because current gear marking rules require more surface buoys than these systems use. The notice says the state has already logged 6,715 trap and pot hauls with this gear under earlier permits. Public comments are open until September 29, 2026.

On-demand gear keeps the buoy line on the seabed until a signal or timer releases it, so no rope stands in the water while the traps fish. The fight over H.R. 9436 is less about whether such gear works than about how fast the fleet must adopt it, and who pays.

Key facts and dates

• 1970: the North Atlantic right whale is listed as endangered.
• September 17, 2021: the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan amendments (86 FR 51970) are published, aiming at a 60 percent risk reduction.
• December 2022: division JJ of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 deems the 2021 rule sufficient for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries until December 31, 2028.
• June 24, 2026: H.R. 9436 is introduced.
• September 1, 2026: the House passes H.R. 9436, 219 to 196.
• September 14, 2026: the Senate receives the bill and refers it to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

What should you watch for next?

Three things. The first is the Senate committee: a bill it never takes up dies at the end of the Congress. The second is NOAA's own rulemaking, both the vessel speed review and whether the agency starts work on new lobster and Jonah crab rules to meet the 2028 date that still stands in law today. The third is the whales themselves: NOAA's next population estimate and the calving season that starts off Georgia and Florida in the winter.

For a sense of how small the margin is, compare the North Pacific right whale, a close relative that is also in this catalog, or the vaquita, a porpoise pushed to the edge by gillnets set for other fish. Our guide to reading an IUCN assessment explains how those declines turn into a Red List category.

This page is not legal advice, and it is not affiliated with NOAA, Congress or the IUCN. Bill status can change quickly; the Congress.gov page for H.R. 9436 carries the latest action.