The harbor porpoise is not rare, with a population estimated between 60,000 and 90,000.
But to keep the population healthy, the Marine Mammal Protection Act allows only a certain number of porpoises to be accidentally caught and killed annually.
Right now, the annual nationwide limit is 703, and the law requires regulators to bring the average down to a tenth of that, about 70 deaths annually, said David Gouveia, the marine mammal program coordinator the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast office.
The loss is huge in an industry that's fighting for its future as it faces significant cuts in key stocks such as cod in the Gulf of Maine and yellowtail flounder in Georges Bank. There's also no obvious end to the annual closure to protect porpoise, since the requirement to reduce accidental porpoise deaths down to 70 per year looks a long way off.
Read the complete story by Jay Lindsay of the AP at Bloomberg Business Week.