March 4, 2021 — Gov. Janet Mills has “grave concerns” about a federal plan to save the North Atlantic right whale from extinction, citing its impact on Maine’s lucrative lobster industry.
In a letter to Michael Pentony, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional fisheries manager, Mills said she proposed rules aimed at reducing whale entanglement in fishing gear would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery as we know it.”
“The state of Maine is adamant that our federal government must take aggressive action to remedy the inequities of this framework in the years ahead,” Mills wrote.
NOAA is drafting new rules to reduce the possibility of entanglement of right whales in “vertical” line fishing gear such as lobster traps. The rules are set to be finalized on May 31.
Mills’ comments were accompanied by a detailed analysis of NOAA’s plan, pointing out flaws in the research and the federal agency’s assumptions about the impact of vertical gear.