After reading this I am perplexed as to why the US doesn’t use AIS to transmit the zones. In other countries, AIS is sometimes used to create virtual markers. This might be the case for places with a shifting sandbar, or perhaps missing buoys (until the replacement is secured). Recently, the EU used AIS to warn vessels of orca attacks on sailboats in specific areas.
AIS is simply a VHF transmission containing data that displays on the plotter the lat/long. Nothing requires the signal to originate from the location of the data being transmitted. In other words, the agency mapping the whale speed zone could quite easily transmit a series of signals. These would then display a map of the speed zone on every vessels plotter receiving AIS. A triangle with an exclamation point would seem like the most likely choice. Perhaps a data point every 10-20 miles putting a grid over the speed zone would be suited. The whale zone could then be shifted or turn off/on as the season dictates.
Then, if someone wishes to blast though the zone with their AIS on, they really have no excuse and should be fined. Also, let’s keep in mind a $10k fine for a sports fishing boat is barely a tank of gas.
I fully support enforcing speed limits and fining captains who operate their vessels recklessly, but I am not convinced that using AIS is the best way to go about this. Owners who choose to equip their boats with AIS are doing so at their own expense in an effort to make boating safer for everyone, and I am concerned that once people learn that their AIS data may used against them, they will simply stop transmitting their AIS position, undoing all the safety gains that AIS brought to recreational boating in the last decade.
Speaking for BoatU.S., (I don't recall ever seeing a request for comment) We are working with a broad coalition of boating and angling groups to oppose this proposed rule in its current form. While we wholeheartedly wish to protect right whales, we believe that this proposed rule will needlessly put boaters in harms way, while adding little to the safety of whales. And we are dead set against using AIS as an enforcement tool. It is a safety device, period. BoatU.S., along with industry partners, will be meeting with Administrator Janet Coit, head of NOAA Marine Fisheries later this week to discuss our position. Chris Edmonston, VP Government Affairs, BoatU.S.
I appreciate this article. It was new information to me. I was not aware of the speed zone implications of the Right Whale areas, but my boat is a slow trawler, so I also don't care.
I have ABSOLUTELY NO SYMPATHY for the commercial sportfish lot. As a group, sportfish owner/operators are the most DISRESPECTFUL and SELFISH BOATERS on the water, and fining them for their bad behavior is the natural outcome of their reckless and dangerous operations around others. I am not at all motivated to lobbying for less enforcement on this issue. If anything, I'd lobby for more enforcement; ESPECIALLY as it applies to SPORTFISH owner/operators!!!
After reading this I am perplexed as to why the US doesn’t use AIS to transmit the zones. In other countries, AIS is sometimes used to create virtual markers. This might be the case for places with a shifting sandbar, or perhaps missing buoys (until the replacement is secured). Recently, the EU used AIS to warn vessels of orca attacks on sailboats in specific areas.
AIS is simply a VHF transmission containing data that displays on the plotter the lat/long. Nothing requires the signal to originate from the location of the data being transmitted. In other words, the agency mapping the whale speed zone could quite easily transmit a series of signals. These would then display a map of the speed zone on every vessels plotter receiving AIS. A triangle with an exclamation point would seem like the most likely choice. Perhaps a data point every 10-20 miles putting a grid over the speed zone would be suited. The whale zone could then be shifted or turn off/on as the season dictates.
Then, if someone wishes to blast though the zone with their AIS on, they really have no excuse and should be fined. Also, let’s keep in mind a $10k fine for a sports fishing boat is barely a tank of gas.
I fully support enforcing speed limits and fining captains who operate their vessels recklessly, but I am not convinced that using AIS is the best way to go about this. Owners who choose to equip their boats with AIS are doing so at their own expense in an effort to make boating safer for everyone, and I am concerned that once people learn that their AIS data may used against them, they will simply stop transmitting their AIS position, undoing all the safety gains that AIS brought to recreational boating in the last decade.
Excellent, as always. Great information.
Speaking for BoatU.S., (I don't recall ever seeing a request for comment) We are working with a broad coalition of boating and angling groups to oppose this proposed rule in its current form. While we wholeheartedly wish to protect right whales, we believe that this proposed rule will needlessly put boaters in harms way, while adding little to the safety of whales. And we are dead set against using AIS as an enforcement tool. It is a safety device, period. BoatU.S., along with industry partners, will be meeting with Administrator Janet Coit, head of NOAA Marine Fisheries later this week to discuss our position. Chris Edmonston, VP Government Affairs, BoatU.S.
Peter,
I appreciate this article. It was new information to me. I was not aware of the speed zone implications of the Right Whale areas, but my boat is a slow trawler, so I also don't care.
I have ABSOLUTELY NO SYMPATHY for the commercial sportfish lot. As a group, sportfish owner/operators are the most DISRESPECTFUL and SELFISH BOATERS on the water, and fining them for their bad behavior is the natural outcome of their reckless and dangerous operations around others. I am not at all motivated to lobbying for less enforcement on this issue. If anything, I'd lobby for more enforcement; ESPECIALLY as it applies to SPORTFISH owner/operators!!!