NOAA receives 'historic' $82 million to conserve endangered right whales

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it has received a "historic" amount of funding to conserve and recover critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Roughly $82 million in federal climate funds from the Inflation Reduction Act will help scientists better track and protect North Atlantic right whales, whose distribution patterns have changed within the last decade due to warming waters, according to NOAA.

“This historic funding will allow NOAA Fisheries to make critical advancements in our work to save the endangered North Atlantic right whale species,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a press release.

NOAA says it will use nearly $36 million to better monitor the right whale population, which has fewer than 340 individuals.

The funds will expand passive acoustic monitoring of the species along the East Coast and help to develop a satellite tagging program using artificial intelligence.

About $20 million will go to prevent vessel strikes, the second leading cause of death and injury to right whales after entanglement with fishing gear.

And nearly $18 million will be used to advance and expand on-demand fishing technology, with a portion of the funds devoted to training and reimbursing fishermen to test out the new techniques.

About $5 million will fund NOAA enforcement efforts.

The $82 million that NOAA announced this week is on top of the funds that Congress set aside for right whale monitoring and research with last year's federal spending bill.

The North Atlantic right whale is the official state marine animal of Massachusetts.

This story is a production of the New England News Collaborative. It was originally published by Maine Public.