NYK Recognized for Achieving Gold Tier in U S West Coast Vessel Speed Reduction Incentive Program hellenicshippingnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hellenicshippingnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Program continues to expand and achieve greater environmental benefits
The partners in an initiative to cut air pollution and protect endangered whales announced results from the 2020 program and recognized the shipping companies that successfully participated, reducing speeds to 10 knots or less in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Southern California region. The program’s new Southern California region extends from Point Arguello (in Santa Barbara County) to waters near Dana Point (by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach).
The voluntary incentive program, called “Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies,” ran May 15, 2020 through November 15, 2020.
Shipping companies receive recognition and financial awards based on the percent of distance traveled by their vessels through the Vessel Speed Reduction (VSR) zones at 10 knots or less and with an average speed of 12 knots or less. The 10-knot target complements the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA
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A conservation group has called on federal authorities to set speed limits on ships off the California coast to prevent threatened and endangered whales from dying in collisions.
The petition from the Center for Biological Diversity asks the National Marine Fisheries Service to consider making the voluntary 10-knot speed limit (11-12 mph) a mandatory rule in whale feeding grounds. Lower speeds give whales a better chance of surviving collisions, if not avoiding them. Endangered blue, humpback, and fin whales off California’s coast are too frequently struck and killed by ships, said the petition filed last week by Catherine Kilduff, a senior attorney with the center.