EAST ORLEANS, Mass. — July 28, 2014 — Outer Cape lobster fishermen say that new federal regulations protecting whales don't just threaten their livelihood, they threaten their lives.
But supporters of the new rules say it's time to cut back on the nearly half-million lobster pot and fishing gear lines that entangle whales at twice the rate allowed under federal laws enacted nearly 20 years ago.
"This is the first (lobster) regulation where you will have wholesale civil disobedience," predicted Orleans lobsterman Steve Smith, while transferring totes of lobsters from his skiff to his pickup truck at Snowshore Landing recently.
"People just aren't going to do it."
State surveys show that at least 30 percent of Massachusetts lobstermen regularly fish alone and many of them set a single lobster pot connected to a single marker buoy. That's particularly true of Outer Cape lobstermen who fish in one of the most exposed ocean environments in New England from vessels less than 30 feet. But, they say, fishing solo is an economic necessity because of limits on the number of traps and the shallow inlets they follow to get offshore.
National Marine Fishing Service data shows that there is an average of nearly 227,000 vertical fishing lines in the water every month in the Northeast. All but 6,200 are for buoys marking lobster pots. The new regulations, which go into effect Jan. 1, stipulate that lobstermen use a minimum of two traps per buoy with the goal of reducing the number of vertical lines in the Northeast by 30 percent.
Smith has a hydraulic winch to bring each pot up from the bottom, and can stand in one spot to pull the lobsters out of the trap, rebait it and let it slip back over the side. But with two traps, he'd have to put both on the deck and then move around to unload and rebait them.
That means two things: He is more at risk for getting entangled in the extra line and he would have to move away from the throttle, which is critical in stopping a moving vessel if he gets caught by the rope and is pulled overboard.
Also, these traps are heavy, as much as 125 pounds apiece. Twice the weight means a lot when they get balled up in a storm, and even more when it threatens to drag you down to the bottom.
"Right now, if you're caught (entangled) in a single trap, you're right at the controls. You can put it into neutral and cut the line or get untangled," said Truro lobsterman Bill Souza. "With more than one, there's no way you can hold that back. It will take you right over the stern."
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