September 30, 2021 — The Maine Legislature is threatening to fight the federal government in court over a set of controversial new seasonal restrictions on lobster harvesting in the Gulf of Maine.
Legislators on Wednesday approved a joint order from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, that would allow the Legislative Council to take legal action in support of Maine lobstermen affected by the regulations.
Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a new set of rules for New England’s lobster fishery aimed at reducing the risk to critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and other whale species.
The goal is to reduce the risk to the whales by at least 60 percent in 2022.
The new rules will require lobstermen to string more traps on a single rope and to use weaker ropes to allow entangled whales to break free, among other changes, and will put more than 950 square miles of the Gulf of Maine off limits to traditional lobstering from October through January – the area’s most lucrative season.
Lobstermen say the new regulations will be expensive, dangerous, burdensome and impractical, and won’t reduce the risk to whales.
“The latest rules imposed by the federal government will do nothing to help the endangered species they were designed to protect while having damning consequences on hardworking Mainers and their families,” Jackson said in a statement. “… The Maine Legislature will not sit idly by while this iconic industry is under threat. We are ready to take legal action to right this wrong and support the hardworking men and women in the lobstering industry.”
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald