December 21, 2022 — Maine’s congressional delegation slipped an amendment into the $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that would delay for six years new protections for endangered whales to protect Maine’s lobster industry.
The amendment would leave existing lobster fishing regulations in place for the time being, thwarting new restrictions aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales, which are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. A federal judge previously delayed the new rules until 2024 to give the government time to craft them.