PORTLAND, Maine — America’s lobster fishing industry will face a host of new harvesting restrictions amid a new push from the federal government to try to save a vanishing species of whale.
The prospect of new rules has loomed over the profitable lobster industry for years and were announced Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale.
Beginning next spring, a nearly 1,000 square mile area in the Gulf of Maine will essentially be off limits for lobster fishing from October to January.
The plan also aims to reduce the number of vertical ropes in the water by lowering the number of lines linking buoys to traps.
It also calls for weaker ropes to prevent whales from becoming tangled.
“That area had a particular overlap of high line density as well as predicted whale density in the region so it was one of a few hot spots in the area that we wanted to take precautionary measures in,” said Dr. Marisa Trego, a NOAA policy analyst, during an afternoon press conference.
The whales number only about 360 and they are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in fishing gear.
The rules are expected to focus on reducing the number of vertical ropes in the water.
Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation, a nonpartisan group that represents the interests of Maine lobstermen, said the decision will close large parts of the Gulf of Maine to lobstering from Mt. Desert Island to Casco Bay from October to January.
“This is incredulous. Maine lobstermen and women are not killing right whales. Why would you penalize an iconic Maine industry for the sake of being able to say you are saving right whales? It’s like cutting off an arm when it’s the foot that is the problem and pretending you have fixed the problem. This industry is under fire from every direction – right whales and large industrial aquaculture. The whale deaths are not in Maine nor at the hands of Maine lobstermen,” said PMFHF Executive Director Crystal Canney.
Gov. Janet Mills and all four members of Maine's Congressional Delegation oppose the new regulations.
“We agree that we must protect the fragile right whale population, but we must do so without endangering human lives or livelihoods. It is unacceptable that Maine lobstermen and women continue to be the primary target of burdensome regulations despite the multiple effective mitigation measures they have taken and the data showing that ship strikes and Canadian snow crab gear pose substantially greater risks to right whales," they said in a joint statement. “We will continue to work with our partners in the lobster industry to support this vital part of Maine’s economy and heritage.”
Maine Senate President Troy Jackson argues the new regulations will cause long-term harm to the industry.
“They’re just trying to make a living and this comes around and it is going to kill the industry,” Sen. Jackson said in an interview with WMTW.
According to NOAA’s records, since 2017 there are no recorded right whale deaths linked to entanglement in Maine waters.
Senator Jackson points to right whale deaths off Canada's coast, 21 in the same timeframe, with 8 linked to vessel strikes.
“I don’t believe there will be any change. There will still be all these deaths of the right whale,” Sen. Jackson said.
NOAA predicts the regulations will reduce the risk of death and serious injuries to right whales by 70%.