By Save LBI
LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ, August 12, 2026 —Save Long Beach Island (Save LBI), a grassroots organization dedicated to sound energy policies and preserving our shore and ocean environment, filed a Notice of Intent on August 9 to sue the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for failure to protect the primary historical migration corridor of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW).
The lawsuit will seek to compel the DOC to revisit and act positively on a 16-month-old Petition asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to designate the whale’s primary historic migration path a “critical habitat” to ensure its survival. DOC is the parent agency of NOAA.
NOAA denied the Petition on July 22, but only after Save LBI filed suit to compel the agency to follow the Endangered Species Act’s 90-day review standard and act on the Petition, which it ignored for more than a year.
Beyond other legal flaws, NOAA’s 90-day finding applies an erroneously heightened standard,” said Thomas Stavola Jr. Esq., counsel for Save LBI. “Instead of fully considering the science cited by Save LBI, the agency simply dismisses it.”
Save LBI Co-Founder and President Bob Stern issued the following statement:
The reasons provided by Commerce in its denial are simply not sound, leaving us deeply disappointed that the federal agency charged with protecting these animals refused to consider a “critical habitat” designation through a rule-making. The DOC’s inaction leaves us no choice but to file suit in federal court to overturn its negative finding and require NOAA Fisheries to conduct the lawful, science-based review that the petition warrants.
We are also perplexed because the [critical habitat] designation and the requirements for an analysis of the operational noise generated by offshore wind-energy complexes would likely deter the siting of such projects in the whale’s primary migration corridor, which is consistent with the President’s stated objections to them. We have written to the President, suggesting that he intervene and reverse the Commerce Department’s denial.
The Petition
Save LBI filed the 232-page petition — A Petition to Revise the Critical Habitat Designation for the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Under the Endangered Species Act — on March 31, 2025. The Petition asks the DOC and NOAA Fisheries to consider designating a continuous East Coast migration corridor as “critical habitat” to protect the North Atlantic right whale under the Endangered Species Act (see map below).
“The North Atlantic right whale’s survival depends upon the ecological connectivity of its entire annual life cycle,” explained Denise Boccia, lead researcher for Save LBI. “The species does not exist as isolated populations occupying separate ‘feeding,’ ‘migration,’ and ‘calving’ areas; rather, these habitats function as an interconnected biological feature necessary to sustain the species.”
The primary historic migration corridor designation the Petition calls for would require federal agencies to ensure actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to destroy or adversely modify the corridor, which is essential to the whale’s migration and survival. It would, in effect, create a vital “missing link” between critical habitats that NOAA designated in 1994, and later expanded, to protect the right whale’s feeding grounds off the coast of Maine (and New England) and its calving and nursery grounds off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. No habitat protections currently exist between these areas in the far north and south, putting the whale’s survival in jeopardy.
With a population estimated at around 380, the right whale is perilously close to extinction and faces numerous threats from offshore wind-turbine complexes up and down the East Coast.
The Petition also requests related action by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) concerning offshore wind development within the proposed corridor. Save LBI is asking the department to require analysis of the underwater noise from the operation of any wind complexes within that corridor to ensure such projects do not block or impair the whale’s essential migration.
The Petition is available here: https://www.savelbi.org/marine-life-whales.
About Save Long Beach Island, Inc. Save Long Beach Island, Inc. is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting the marine environment, coastal ecosystems, and quality of life for residents and visitors of Long Beach Island and the surrounding region. The organization advocates for science-based, balanced policies that safeguard wildlife, preserve local economies, and promote responsible stewardship of ocean resources.
Save the whales. Ban offshore wind .
“Save the whales” was the start of ignorant actism that became Greenpeace.
Be careful what you wish for.
You should not accept or reject ignorant activism based on like or dislike of the “cause”.
Geoff S
I like whales, but they seem to inspire extreme dopiness in humans, e.g. Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek IV), Gordon Lightfoot (Big Blue) and, of course, Captain Ahab.
I know. Cynical use of green activism against green activism seems appropriate.
Use their tactics and weapons against them.
So an island is in jeopardy if less whales swim past it ???
Please explain, my imagination has failed me and cannot give me even a crazy picture as to how that might come about.
Someone needs to tell them that taking up the use of oil and natural gas stopped an enormous number of whales being killed and used to obtain oil for human use, lamp light.
Big problem is that there is no evidence that wind turbine construction harms whales, as all of the beached whales show evidence of being hit by boats or entanglement in nets. Also, construction is done at times of the years when whales aren’t migrating. Whatever.
Increasing collisions and entanglements is how wind noise kills whales. Wind “farms” occupy the low traffic and low fishing areas forcing the whales to spend more time in dangerous waters.
Whales are found in the mid-Atlantic in all times of the year.
No evidence? Open your eyes.
“Big problem is that there is no evidence that wind turbine construction harms whales”
The big problem is that no one has looked for it or dismissed the possibility when it was found.
The original quote was “kills whales.”
I admire this right whale effort. But as a retired lawyer, the legal arguments are very weak. Two examples:
Do better, or cease and desist.
The bigger real right whale endangerment is New England lobster pot line entanglement. And New England lobstermen are being forced into relatively costly solutions (like no pot to surface ‘permanent’ lines, just floatation electronics).
The foundations are steel tubes which give off turbine noise. There is some science on this. If the whales avoid the wind facilities it takes them into dangerous high ship traffic areas. That is blockage.
Have you seen this, Rud?
The leaders all live in $5,000,000 plus beach homes and do not want to look at wind farms in their ocean views plus of course the Stockholm syndrome delusional who fill guilty for having a good life so want to protest something and give money to justify their good life.
I live in West Virginia.
“We’re trying to save the planet, and you’re worried about a few fish?”
Climate Caterwaulers
That’s what NOAA is saying.
NOAA has to promote the idea of a CO2 climate crisis, and promoting windmills as a solution is part of that.
Yeah, Trump should get involved. He should put a stop to off-shore windmills. Supporting whale migration can be a help.