The federal government is withdrawing proposed rules that would have required more ships to slow down in East Coast waters to try to save a vanishing species of whale.

The proposed rules would have slowed more ships to prevent collisions with endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has withdrawn a proposed regulation intended to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from vessel strikes. The decision has left conservationists and Maine’s lobster industry expressing disappointment,