YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentWorkers & JobsTransparency & AccountabilityA freeze on stronger whale-safety rules for New England lobster boats would run seven more years, to the end of 2035.
Environment
Section 2 strikes 2028 each place it appears in section 101 of division JJ of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, and writes 2035. That section runs on end-of-2028 dates, so the deadline for new rules cutting the risk of whales getting caught in American lobster and Jonah crab gear moves back seven years, along with every other date in it.
Workers & Jobs
The American lobster and Jonah crab fleets would face no new federal whale gear rules for another seven years. The 2023 provision has the government work with fishermen and the affected states on existing and new gear technology in the meantime, and that work would run on the longer clock.
Transparency & Accountability
The 2023 provision treats a rule finished in September 2021 as full compliance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act for these fisheries. While that holds, a court cannot find them out of step with either law. The shield would run to the end of 2035 instead of the end of 2028.
More about this bill
Lobster and crab boats off New England would keep fishing under today’s whale rules for seven more years. A 2023 law locked those rules in place through the end of 2028. That date would move to the end of 2035. The 2023 law was a trade. Rules finished in September 2021 to keep North Atlantic right whales out of fishing gear were declared enough to meet wildlife law. That shut the door on lawsuits arguing they fall short. In return, the government had to promote safer gear and put stronger rules in effect by the end of 2028. Each of those dates would slide seven years. Fewer than 400 of these whales are thought to be left. Getting caught in fishing gear is a top cause of death. Boat crews say the gear changes on the table cost more than the fishery can carry. Wildlife groups say seven years is time the species does not have. The bill now carries a name: the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026. That name is the only thing the committee added. It says who the bill helps rather than what it changes.
Congressional Summary
Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026This bill extends the deadline from 2028 to 2035 for the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue new regulations that protect the endangered Atlantic large whale from certain lobster and crab fishing gear. Under current law, the new regulations must include requirements for the American lobster and Jonah crab fisheries to utilize existing and innovative fishing gear technologies as appropriate to reduce the risk of whales becoming entangled in their gear.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 22 - 13.
- Action Date
- 2026-07-15
- Date Added
- 2026-08-27
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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