Sponsors (26)
The bill improves whale protection through better mapping, near‑real‑time monitoring, grants for detection technologies, and increased transparency, but it increases federal spending and administrative burdens and may leave some regions or partners underfunded or excluded.
State and local governments, mariners, and coastal communities will get near–real-time monitoring and faster mitigation for threatened and endangered whales, helping prevent lethal ship strikes and entanglements.
State and local governments, small businesses (fishing and tourism), and maritime operators will benefit from high‑accuracy, predictive distribution maps for migratory whale stocks that improve knowledge of whale locations and enable better operational decisions to reduce collisions and entanglements.
Small fishing and tourism businesses, technology developers, and nonprofits can access competitive grants to develop detection technologies and coexistence approaches, supporting innovation, local economic opportunities, and private‑sector solutions.
Taxpayers will fund increased federal spending (authorized up to about $18 million annually plus a separate $10 million grant pot), which could require trade-offs with other budget priorities or offsets.
NOAA staff and state partners may face increased administrative workload from the expanded program scope, new reporting and coordination requirements, and grant management obligations, potentially diverting staff time from other priorities.
Local communities, tribal residents, and understudied whale stocks could be left without timely surveys or mapping if NOAA prioritizes other stocks or regions, creating gaps in protection and uneven coverage.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands NOAA whale mapping, surveys, monitoring, and mitigation authorities, creates a grant program for detection technologies, and authorizes funding for FY2026–2030.
Official title: To amend the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 to provide for a mapping, surveying, monitoring, and mitigation program for migratory whales and other large cetaceans.
Introduced February 3, 2026 by Doris Matsui · Last progress February 3, 2026
Expands and reorganizes federal programs to map, survey, monitor, and mitigate impacts to migratory whales and other large cetaceans. It creates a near‑real‑time monitoring and mitigation subprogram for threatened or endangered cetaceans, requires NOAA to produce high‑accuracy distribution and predictive maps and to survey understudied stocks, and establishes a competitive grant program (administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) for detection technologies and related activities. Authorizes multi‑year funding for mapping, surveys, the new subprogram, and the grant program for FY2026–2030, requires regular reporting to Congress on progress and knowledge gaps, and adds statutory definitions and cross‑references so stock assessments must consider the new distribution maps.