Proposed coastal speed limit

What's it supposed to do?? Reduce a few whale strikes? More heavy handed government actions.

It's out to 60NM from shore. That is REALLY going to screw us on deliveries. Supposedly there have been 5 whale strikes since 2005 or something crazy like that. Its the government trying to force everyone to use less fuel, just in a different method.

60 miles from shore? Does the Us have no limit to their territorial waters? Where does their jusridiction end in their fantasy? Azores? Or somewhere near India? If so, from what direction?

It is called government control of "everything"!!

The only thing I can think is that they're going to try and assert that the Economic Exclusive Zone - the scope of which is supposed to be limited to 200-miles that's BENEATH the water's surface - is applicable here because...whales. But, after a cursory review of the language of that treaty, I really don't see any legitimate way they can claim the right to establish and enforce speed limits on surface ships.

Having said that, the USCG and USN interdict illicit drug shipments outside the 12-NM and 200-NM limits all the time. And, if you're in a US flagged vessel, it's probably going to be an uphill fight.

Let's look at the numbers. The little bit of fuel saved at 10kts vs lots of additional motor and crew hours traveling that slow. Turn off ais and risk getting caught and fined $20k. The per hour costs of running a big boat will quickly overcome the odds of getting caught. Very few boats that had ais off have been caught. I'd rather get caught and have a big public fight with the government than roll over.

A balance would be to keep the ICW dredged to authorized depths. There are several areas with only 4 feet of depth across the channel width.
The cited statistics on deaths and declines of right whale population are very significant. The cost of several extra days labor balanced by smaller fuel burn is not likely significant IMHO. Actually gives more employment to captains.
There should be the retained right to run for cover at higher than proposed speed for safety purposes if storms develop.

What does the ICW depth have to do with whale strikes ?
Very few whale strikes per capita boat transits.
It's the tree huggers attempt to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Death of a thousand cuts.
If whale strikes were an issue like logs in pnw the mariners would spread the word quickly. No one wants to sink.

I suspect the thought is about more viable alternative routing. As in, fewer might choose outside if the inside route were easier...

-Chris

I got his thought process, I'm pointing out the mental reach to get there. You have two groups running in the proposed slow zones. Travel boats and boats leaving headed due east to fish.
Travel boats aren't likely to use ICW, they need to get where they're going. The annual migration from north east to Caribbean won't involve the ICW no matter how deep it is. The daily fishing boats only want east west travel and will either stop going or break the law.
Another stupid government rule waiting to get challenged in court.

I am stumped by the 35 to 65 ft limitation. How many whales do you think are struck by 35 to 65 ft boats a year? What about large yachts and commercial shipping? Man this will make the trip north and south very painful. But this is why we have hearings and courts. There is a process that exists to stop this and many people/groups will line up to stop this one. You can count on it.

The over 65 rule has been in effect for a while and roundly ignored by most.

If I could only do 10 knots maximum on a delivery from NY to FL I’d take the icw or inside from cape may down every time. Otherwise for much of that trip, you’re wasting 2 hours going out of an inlet and 2 hours coming back in an inlet each day without making any N or S progress. And on the icw, it’s comfortable, little clean up and you don’t get pounded. If the ICW was dredged and at controlled depth, it would be a no brained. Sad thing is, in 2003 I worked on a 97’ my that drew 8.5-9’ of draft and we took the icw exclusively without issues.