Dear Marmam Community, Please check out our recent article in Marine Policy examining North Atlantic right whale-related legislation at the US state and federal levels: Title: North Atlantic right whale Unusual Mortality Event prompts increased legislation and partisan variation at state and federal levels Abstract: North Atlantic right whales are a critically endangered species of baleen whale facing threats from vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglement, and anthropogenic climate change. Following the declaration of an Unusual Mortality Event in 2017, there has been a push for increased conservation efforts propelled through policy activity in the United States and Canada. Policy diffusion literature suggests that a policy window opens after a focusing event occurs, like an Unusual Mortality Event, and that policy networks between states will facilitate the spread of legislation. This study examines databases of proposed legislation related to North Atlantic right whales from the United States Congress from 1993 to 2024, and 14 East Coast state legislatures bordering the Atlantic Ocean from 2000 to 2024. There were 49 bills introduced in Congress and 56 bills introduced in 5 East Coast state legislatures over the assessed time period. Both federal and state legislative data indicated that a policy window opened in 2017. However, text analysis of identified bills indicated no evidence of policy diffusion between states or from states to the federal government. Instead, we find that states with Democratic-controlled legislatures propose more action-oriented policies while states with Republican-controlled legislatures propose signaling policies. This suggests that under federalism, states react to policy windows in a variety of ways based on the goals of their constituents, informing how stakeholders should lobby for conservation policies in the future. The article is freely available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2026.107033 Cheers, Dr. Erin Meyer-Gutbrod -- Dr. Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod (she/her) Assistant Professor School of the Earth, Ocean & Environment University of South Carolina https://meyer-gutbrod.weebly.com/ emgutbrod@seoe.sc.edu 216-548-9082