After years of inaction, federal regulators are on the cusp of imposing new rules to protect right whales By David Abel Globe Staff,Updated February 28, 2021, 4:04 p.m. Email to a Friend A North Atlantic right whale surfaced Cape Cod Bay off Plymouth in 2018.Michael Dwyer/Associated Press Nearly two years ago, federal regulators declared that North Atlantic right whales were facing an existential crisis. They convened a wide-ranging team of experts â state officials, scientists, fishermen, and conservation groups â in what they said was an effort to save the species from extinction. Since then, 14 whales have been found dead and another 14 have been so seriously injured â either from entanglements in fishing gear or vessel strikes â that theyâre considered âswimming while dead.â As the estimated right whale population plunged by a quarter, a federal judge ruled last spring