What's New

Federal officials are drafting a new plan for managing Stellwagen Bank. Your support can help us make the case for a strong plan that really protects the whales off Massachusetts’ coast.

How You Can Help

Click here to tell the federal government to protect Massachusetts' whales -- and our Atlantic legacy -- by strengthening protections for this critical ocean ecosystem.

Background

The rich feeding grounds off Massachusetts’ coast are critical to the survival of the Humpback Whale and the highly-endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. But even in Stellwagen Bank, the marine sanctuary that runs from Cape Ann south to Cape Cod, destructive practices endanger the survival of these threatened species.

Overfishing and highly destructive “bottom trawling”—roughly equivalent to strip-mining the ocean floor— endanger the food supply whales need to survive. And large ships run directly through the Right Whale’s nursing grounds, causing sometimes fatal collisions.

To protect the Right Whale, the Humpback Whale and other threatened species, we need the officials who manage Stellwagen Bank to commit to practices that will preserve the area’s rich marine life.

We’re working to ensure that the officials who manage Stellwagen Bank:

• Keep industrial shipping out of the Bank in order to prevent huge ships from striking the whales. Ten percent of strikes to Right Whales occur in Stellwagen Bank.

• Ensure that factory fishing vessels leave enough plankton, herring and other food for Stellwagen’s whales.