Saving Seafood

MAINE: Rep. Golden asks for more lobstermen on panel

March 24, 2022 — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) March 16 to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team by including members of Maine Lobstering Union Local 207.

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team is charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale mortalities. Only four of the members of the 60-person team are Maine lobstermen.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Golden Presses Feds for More Maine Lobstermen Representation on Regulation Advisory Panel

March 21, 2022 — The following was released by The Office of Jared Golden:

Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) today to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) by including members of the Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 (MLU).

The ALWTRT is a council of stakeholders charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale (NARW) mortalities, or takes. However, only four of the members of the 60-person ALWTRT are Maine lobstermen, the workforce whose livelihoods would be most impacted by the group’s recommendations.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort. They are currently working on new data collection models utilizing fishermen and their fishing gear to obtain vital information about right whale habitat in the Gulf of Maine. This data, if brought to bear, would prove invaluable to the ALWTRT as they continue to assess the underlying causes of right whale serious injury and mortality.”

“The MLU greatly appreciates Congressman Golden’s support in seeking additional Maine seats on the ALWTRT for Local 207,” said MLU Secretary Virginia Olsen. “These are very uncertain times for Maine lobstermen and securing union seats to bring new science forward is vital in protecting our heritage fishery. As new technologies come available, we need to work with fishermen who are on the water day in and day out to be a part of this process, not only conceptually but in data collection too.”

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), take reduction teams like ALWTRT must be inclusive of “all commercial and recreational fisheries groups and gear types which incidentally take the species or stock.” The MMPA also authorizes NMFS to appoint additional members to a take reduction team if a particular constituency is not adequately represented.

“In order to ensure that the ALWTRT is indeed representative of all commercial fisheries groups, I strongly urge you to appoint representatives from the MLU,” Golden continued. “Their unique makeup as an entirely fishermen-member enterprise that participates in every aspect of the industry make them an indispensable industry participant whose voice deserves to have a seat at the table.”

Maine lobstermen have a history of environmental stewardship and continued commitment to protecting the North Atlantic right whale. Beginning in 1997, Maine lobstermen have implemented costly and labor-intensive gear modifications to protect the NARW. Since then, NARW population growth has doubled. Recent right whale mortalities have been definitively linked to ship strikes and entanglements in Canadian waters with no entanglements affirmatively linked to Maine’s lobster fishery since 2004.

You can read a copy of the letter here.

 

Decision due next week on seasonal lobstering ban

January 25, 2021 — In China, 2021 is down as the Year of the Ox. In the cold waters off the coast of New England, it is shaping up as the Year of the Whale. The North Atlantic right whale.

Federal regulators, through the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction team, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries have proposed a series of overlapping new protections for the imperiled species that will have a significant impact on the region’s lobster industry.

In Massachusetts, lobstermen will find out next week whether the state will implement DMF’s recommendations for state waters that include a new seasonal closure on all lobstering from February to May — the time period of the annual migration and feeding along the Massachusetts coast by the whales whose numbers are estimated to have dropped below 400.

The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission is set to meet Thursday morning via zoom. DMF Director Dan McKiernan will present the agency’s recommendations — which also include the utilization of weaker, break-away vertical buoy lines to help mitigate gear entanglements — and the commission will vote.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Collins proposes reforms to support Maine lobster industry, protect whales

September 23, 2019 — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) proposed changes to federal reforms that would protect whales and support the Maine lobster industry.

Sen. Collins joined her congressional colleagues from Maine in jointly responding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) call for input to develop modifications to the proposed regulations developed by NOAA’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT).

In a letter sent on Tuesday to the NOAA TRT team, the delegation recommended measures that would help reduce right whale fatalities without threatening the lobster industry, including more Maine-specific gear markings, improved monitoring, support for the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ proposal to preserve the current regulatory exemptions line, and the state’s plan to improve data collection.

Read the full story at The Ripon Advance

Maine lobsterer group calls Rep. Seth Moulton to task

September 18, 2019 — The head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association countered comments Monday by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, saying Moulton mischaracterized the organization’s motives and actions when it withdrew its support for the federal plan for increased protections to the North Atlantic right whales.

“Contrary to the congressman’s characterization, the MLA remains engaged in the (take reduction team) process and will continue to work with the agency and our members to identify measures to the risk that the Maine lobster industry poses to right whales,” Patrice McCarron wrote in an email to the Gloucester Daily Times. “However, the MLA cannot support the Northeast lobster fishery being singled out as the sole source of entanglement risk.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association on Aug. 30 withdrew its support for the most current plan devised by the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team because of what it described as questionable data from NOAA scientists and an unfair portrayal of the industry’s culpability as a primary cause of injury or death to the right whales. It also criticized the rule-making process as rushed.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA says it will do more analysis in wake of criticism of proposed whale rules

September 12, 2019 — NOAA Fisheries on Wednesday said it was disappointed the Maine Lobstermen’s Association pulled its support from the federal plan to implement stronger protections for right whales, but did not specifically address the lobster association’s criticisms of the science used to develop the plan.

The statement from Chris Oliver, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, said the agency continues to review the lobster association letter and conduct additional analysis on the issues it raised. It said the agency will continue to work with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association “on any clarifying questions or concerns by other fisheries.”

Oliver also stated that the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team strives to develop consensus recommendations, but “the agency will consider the extent of support for alternative proposals when consensus is not reached.”

Oliver’s statement arrived following 11 days of silence from NOAA Fisheries after the Maine Lobstermen’s Association informed the agency on Aug. 30 that it was stepping away from the right whale take reduction plan.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Massachusetts Attorney General pushes for right whale regulations, lobstermen feel left out

September 11, 2019 — The Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, has sent a letter to the coalition of New England governors (NEG) and Eastern Canadian Premiers (ECP) pushing for greater regional effort to prevent more North Atlantic right whale deaths.

The whales, one of the most endangered whale species on the planet, have been the subject of an ongoing debate over what steps need to be taken by fishermen – particularly in the lobster industry – to prevent entanglements, which have led to a series of deaths. Through several meetings of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team – comprised of industry, nonprofit, and government representatives – Massachusetts agreed to a 30 percent cut in the number of vertical buoy lines by lobstermen, as well as using ropes with a lower 1,700 pound breaking strength.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Rally over whale rules planned

July 19, 2019 — It was almost 45 years ago when a fictional news anchor named Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch in the film “Network,” shouted out to listeners “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!”

Last week, Stonington lobsterman Julie Eaton, speaking for most members of her industry said just about the same thing in a posting on Facebook announcing plans for a rally on the Stonington Fish Pier at noon this Sunday to protest a proposed NOAA Fisheries rule that would force Maine lobstermen to remove half their buoy lines from the Gulf of Maine to reduce the risk that endangered right whales might become entangled in the fishing gear.

“It is official,” Eaton wrote. “We are holding a Lobstermen’s Rally … on the Stonington Commercial Fish Pier.”

Last March, NOAA Fisheries announced that the risk of harming right whales in the Gulf of Maine had to be reduced by 60 percent. Not long afterwards, the regulators adopted a “consensus” recommendation by a stakeholder group including representatives from the Department of Marine Resources, other state and federal fisheries regulators and several conservation organizations — the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team — that to reach the risk reduction target, Maine lobstermen would have to reduce the number of vertical buoy lines in the Gulf of Maine by 50 percent even though evidence showed that Maine fishing gear was not the primary cause of most of the right whale deaths over the past several years and that the vast majority of recent whale mortalities had occurred in Canadian waters.

According to Eaton, Sunday’s gathering is emphatically not a protest of the whale rule proposal but is intended “to inform the public that we are not killing whales in Maine, voice our concerns about the proposed whale regulations and how they will not only affect our own futures and safety but the future of our children and our coastal communities.”

Read the full story at The Mount Desert Islander

A Life-Long Lobsterman Also Works Hard On Ways To Avoid Whales

June 28, 2019 — Rob Martin was five miles out on his boat, Resolve, lobstering with his crew, and made a call on his way back to port.

Martin wasn’t calling his buyer. He was joining a conference call for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, of which he is a member.

Martin intended to just listen, but they started talking about gear modifications, which he knows a good deal about.

They asked him to chime in as he was offloading, but there was quite a bit of background noise on his end.

“Can you hold on a second? I have to shut the boat down,” he remembers asking. “Actual fisherman here out fishing and coming in to talk!”

The conversation revolved around installing breakaway sleeves in vertical lines from traps to buoys so whales can snap them on contact and not become entangled.

Martin wasn’t required to make those changes, but he already had. He has been working for years to find a way to continue fishing and protect whales, like other proactive lobstermen. So when managers and others first started talking about “breakaway” lines he took the hint and started retrofitting his gear. In the 1990s, when regulators were looking at sinking lines to help avoid whales, he got ahead of that too. Sinking lines, weighted to drop to the bottom if they break free, are now a requirement.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Weighing in on whales: Maine’s delegation asks for accuracy

May 31, 2019 — Maine’s congressional delegation issued a letter this week to NOAA’s acting director in an effort to clarify the agency’s mission and goals for right whale protections.

Maine’s lobster industry stakeholders have concerns about the federal data tool used to establish levels of risk, varying standards for risk reduction, and sharing the burden of whale protection by enlisting Canadian fisheries to adopt similar management measures.

Following an April meeting of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team, Maine lobster officials agreed to reduce vertical trap lines by 50 percent and overall risk to right whales by 60 percent, with the understanding that other state-run fisheries would make the same commitment to overall risk reduction.

Read the full story at National Fisherman