(Photo via Rachel Rothman)

Volunteer Writer: Emma Bowser

Email: ebowser@umassd.edu 

The Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG) is a “statewide, non-partisan, student-advocacy organization” located on college campuses across Massachusetts. They run campaigns to advocate for improvement in legislation that handles public healthcare, environmental resource management/conservation, accessibility of higher education, and more. 

Because MASSPIRG is a student public interest research group, it’s funded by a fee that Massachusetts students pay. The fee is waivable and costs between $9.00 and $11.00 per semester ($18-$22 per academic year). These funds are pooled together to pay for staff.

Students who pay the fee and attend meetings as necessary have some control over what happens in their chapter of MASSPIRG through voting. There are regular ballots run to address the fee, campaign topics, and evaluate the support of the student body.

Their notable achievements include campaigning for 2008’s Global Warming Solutions Act and an associated campaign for renewable energy in 2016. They also have advocates in Washington, D.C., and Boston who lobbied to protect the Pell Grant and to pass the Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights.

Currently, their priority is the local and national environment. Their campaigns are in favor of laws that have already been passed to convert college campuses to renewable energy and improve waste management. The goal is to make carbon footprints left by students, staff, and faculty disappear entirely.

They are running a campaign to promote conservation efforts for the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis). This species is important to Massachusetts because they pass through coastal waters while they migrate from Canada to Florida.

These whales have been endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1970 because they were previously hunted almost to extinction by the commercial whaling industry in the 1890s, 

“Whaling is no longer a threat, but they have never recovered to pre-whaling numbers, and human interactions still present the greatest danger to this species.”

There are multiple reasons why humans harm whale populations, but some of the most well-known ones include pollution from chemicals and garbage, vessel strikes from commercial ships, increased sound traffic, and the risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

The population number is troublingly low because of the many dangers North Atlantic Right Whales currently face. According to NOAA, there are “approximately 370 individuals remaining, including fewer than 70 reproductively active females.” 

Equally worrying is the fact that the birth rate has been below average within the past few years and the ongoing unusual mortality event that started in 2017 and resulted in the deaths of 20% or more of the population.

MASSPIRG’s goal is to change the ocean vessel speed limit by persuading Bill Keating, the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts, to promote legislation that will regulate the speed of ocean vessels and reduce the risk of vessel strikes for all marine animals.

This regulation will require all vessels 35 feet or taller to follow a 10-knot speed limit in specific areas while the whales are migrating. There is already a piece of legislation in place that has the same restrictions for vessels 65 feet or taller.

In November, MASSPIRG is planning to meet with Representative Bill Keating’s staff and discuss this topic. They will present their case and demonstrate the community’s support during this meeting. 

They have also established specific goals that they plan to achieve before this meeting that they anticipate with confidence. Most of these goals are sign-on, petitions, and calls, but they have also held a successful shoreline clean-up.

They have acquired 21 total sign-ons, 981 total petitions, three letters sent to editors, and made 164 calls to Bill Keating’s office. 

The shoreline clean-up featured a partnership with Be the Solution to Pollution and resulted in 35 volunteers removing 443 pounds of garbage from local beaches. They found “35 pounds of rope, 191 nip bottles, and 189 single-use plastic beverage bottles,” according to Rachel Rothman.

For more information on MASSPIRG’s campaign to save the North Atlantic Right Whales, please contact Rachel Rothman at rrothman@masspirgstudents.org.