March 19, 2023 — A group of lobstermen is heading to court in the hope of resolving an issue that they claim has endangered their American market: lobster defamation.
Months after a California aquarium and conservation group recommended that seafood consumers avoid buying and eating American lobster, Maine industry groups are arguing that lobster, which is mostly harvested in that state, should not have been boycotted.
A coalition of organizations, including the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, filed the defamation suit Monday against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation after it placed the American lobster, a species found on the Atlantic coast that makes up most of the U.S. market, on its “red list” of seafood for consumers to avoid in September.
Seafood Watch, the conservation group operated by the aquarium, made the move because of the threat posed to right whales by fishing gear entanglement used to harvest lobster. Only an estimated 340 right whales are left in the North Atlantic.