November 18, 2021 — The United States can impose seasonal limits on lobster fishing methods in part of the Gulf of Maine while the fate of the restriction is being challenged, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
The Tuesday ruling reverses a lower court decision that paused the new rule, which restricts the use of lobster fishing lines in an effort to protect North Atlantic right whales from deadly entanglement in the gear.
Alfred Frawley, a lawyer for a lobstering union and lobster harvesters who sued the National Marine Fisheries Service over its regulation, said the plaintiffs are analyzing the ruling.
Maine’s lobster industry is the biggest in the country. Its lobster fishery caught about $400 million worth of the sought-after crustacean last year, state data shows.