July 24, 2019 — Stonington is a tiny hamlet far off the beaten path in Downeast Maine. As the crow flies, it’s about 80 miles from Portland. On the road, it’s double that. Suffice it to say, it’s hard to end up there by accident.
So it was by design that the state’s Gov. Janet Mills, Sen. Susan Collins, and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden were part of a large crowd of elected officials to appear at a rally in the state’s lobster capital over the weekend.
On Sunday, July 21, a local gathering was slated to bring attention to pending federal requirements for the state’s lobster fleet to cut its lines in the water by 50 percent as part of a broad federal proposal to protect endangered right whales. Maine’s fleet has long led the charge to adapt its gear in efforts to reduce interactions with whales. But this proposed rule, industry leaders say, would only harm the fleet without serving to protect the whales.
“NOAA knows that not one right whale has been proven to have been entangled in Maine rope in many years, and the new proposed regulations would only cause extreme danger to our lobstermen,” said lobsterman Julia Eaton, who helped organize the gathering.
On May 28, Sen. Angus King, Collins, Pingree and Golden submitted a letter to acting NOAA Director Neil Jacobs. On July 10, the delegation submitted a similar letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to intervene in the conflict and acknowledge that Maine’s fishing gear does not appear to pose a risk to the whales’ shrinking population.