September 12, 2022 — A federal judge has rejected a bid by lobstermen and the state of Maine to block new rules aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The National Marine Fisheries Service issued new rules last year that described where and how lobstermen can fish in federal waters. The agency has said the new rules are intended to protect the remaining population of right whales, which is estimated at about 340.
The plaintiffs, which included both the Maine and Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Associations, as well as Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and the Maine Lobstering Union, asked a federal judge to block those rules, contending that they overstate the risks caused by their trap lines and create needless economic harm to the lobster industry.
They argue that in drafting those rules, the NMFS committed “scientific errors,” in part, because Maine lobstermen say their gear hasn’t been involved with a right whale entanglement in nearly two decades.