Maine Lobster Industry Wins Reprieve From Regulations – A Major Loss for Environmentalists

What’s the story?

• Maine’s billion-dollar lobster industry won a reprieve from new federal fishing regulations, signifying a loss for environmental groups trying to protect the North Atlantic right whale population.
• With help from the state’s congressional delegation, the industry was able to insert a six-year delay on new restrictions into the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that President Biden signed into law on Friday, Dec. 23. 
• Maine's 5,000 licensed commercial lobstermen have been fighting against new fishing rules, saying it could decimate their industry and coastal communities. The regulations could limit their fishing practices for a few months, reduce or change the rope they use, and create non-fishing zones.
• The federal spending bill also called for the creation of a grant program that could fund new fishing gear technologies that are not as harmful to whales. 

The endangerment of right whales

• The biggest threats to right whales are entanglement in fishing ropes and collisions with ships. Environmentalists have been pushing for official restrictions on the gear that is dangerous to the whales, specifically the vertical lines of rope that connect traps on the bottom of buoys.
• The fishing gear can wrap around a whale’s fins or lodge in their mouths, causing a painful and slow death. Last month, the Marine Stewardship Council called whale entanglement a “serious and tragic situation.” 
• The effects of climate change have intensified the issue. As ocean waters warm, right whales are moving further north from their typical feeding area, encountering Maine’s dominating lobster industry. 
• Only 340 North Atlantic right whales are left in the world. Conservation groups worry that this regulation delay could push the species past endangerment and toward extinction. 

What they’re saying 

• Lobsterman Curt Brown told NPR:

“If you take away three months, four months, five months of the ability to go out and harvest lobster, you are not only going to impact harvesters. You are going to impact many, many other businesses as well.”

• Brett Hartl of the Center for Biological Diversity believes the regulations are necessary to save the right whale population. He said:

“Is there a chance that we can save the right whale in 2028? Yeah, sure. It maybe was a 50-50 proposition before. Now it's like 95 percent to 5 percent against.”

• Maine’s political leaders — Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike — have continuously backed the industry because of its contributions to the state's economy. Lawmakers argue that Maine lobster gear is not responsible for right whale deaths. Sen. Susan Collins (ME-R) said:

“In the 25 years that I've been privileged to represent Maine in the United States Senate, I have never seen a worse case of regulatory overreach to address a problem and blame an industry that is not at all responsible for a problem.”

• Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and author of "We Are All Whalers" told The Guardian:

“We’re not managing to avoid lethal entanglement or entanglement that’s detrimental to their health. For whales to reproduce and for their numbers to recover, they have to be fit, fat, healthy.”

How to help right whales

• According to Moore, the issue comes down to the consumer not buying lobster. He said: 

“It’s all driven by climate change and the direct impact of the things we do to extract the resources and things we want. It’s a glorious mismatch that comes down to what we really care about.”

• “Ropeless” fishing gear is currently in development. Making it available on a wide scale will allow fishermen to use technology to call a trap up to the surface rather than the ropes.
• If you’re a resident of Maine, contact your elected officials using the Maine Coalition for North Atlantic Right Whales’ letter template, advocating for right whales.
• Support Mainers Guarding Right Whales by donating to the organization, and discover more ways to help the right whale population on their website.  

Should Maine lawmakers increase lobster industry regulations? Tell the state's representatives what you think.

-Jamie Epstein

(Photo credit: iStock/MichellePatrickPhotographyLLC & Foto4440)