I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6785 
To assist in the conservation of the North Atlantic right whale by supporting 
and providing financial resources for North Atlantic right whale conserva-
tion programs and projects of persons with expertise required for the 
conservation of North Atlantic right whales, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 18, 2022 
Mr. MOULTON (for himself, Mr. HUFFMAN, and Ms. KUSTER) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To assist in the conservation of the North Atlantic right 
whale by supporting and providing financial resources 
for North Atlantic right whale conservation programs 
and projects of persons with expertise required for the 
conservation of North Atlantic right whales, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Right Whale Coexist-
ence Act of 2022’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 
(1) North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena 
glacialis) are critically endangered, with fewer than 
340 remaining at the time of the introduction of this 
Act; 
(2) historically, the North Atlantic right whale 
population was decimated by the whaling industry, 
although the whale population received protections 
from such industry in the 1930s; 
(3) despite a modest recovery prior to 2010, the 
North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endan-
gered whales in the world and has experienced a sig-
nificant decline since 2010; 
(4) the North Atlantic right whale has been 
listed as an endangered species under the Endan-
gered Species Conservation Act of 1969 (Public Law 
89–669; 80 Stat. 926) and its successor the Endan-
gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) 
since 1970 and is designated as depleted under the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 
1361 et seq.); 
(5) because North Atlantic right whales are 
long-lived and highly migratory, and at present rates 
females give birth to a single calf only once every 5 
to 10 years, they are highly vulnerable to the im-
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pacts of human activity and habitat degradation, 
with female whales and calves particularly vulnerable 
to vessel strikes; 
(6) North Atlantic right whales frequently cross 
paths with high vessel traffic areas and fishing 
grounds, leaving the whales particularly vulnerable 
to vessel collisions and fishing gear entanglements, 
the leading causes of injury and death to the species; 
(7) even when North Atlantic right whales do 
not die as a result of fishing gear entanglement or 
vessel strike, those whales can still experience sig-
nificant sub-lethal effects such as chronic stress and 
reproductive failure; 
(8) this ongoing decline due to human impacts 
resulted in a further 30 percent decline in the popu-
lation between 2019 and 2020 resulting in the low-
est population estimate in the past 2 decades; 
(9) based on the current rate of mortality of 
North Atlantic right whales, and because of the 
small number of breeding females in the population 
and low birth rates, recent analysis suggests the spe-
cies will lose its ability to recover in merely a few 
decades if human-caused mortality is not reduced 
immediately; 
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