Saving Seafood

Lobstermen, supporters push back hard on Seafood Watch ‘red listing’

September 13, 2022 — The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program is facing harsh criticism and pushback over its new “red list” designation for Northeast lobster, recommending seafood suppliers and consumers avoid lobster.

The influential Seafood Watch rating system has informed retailers and food service  providers since 1999, listing what it considers sustainable, environmentally responsible fisheries – and what species to avoid.

In February 2022 the aquarium signaled it would consider red-listing Northeast lobster, over the danger of entanglement in vertical trap lines for endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Sept. 6 announcement is provoking a furious campaign to reverse the designation.

“Your accusation that Maine lobstermen are to blame for the troubles of North Atlantic right whales is flat out wrong,” Maine elected officials declared in a letter harshly rebuking the aquarium. “Right whales are not dying in Maine lobster gear and the report blindly ignores everything that Maine lobstermen have done to create a sustainable industry. Make no mistake, your designation will have a real world impact – with the industry already facing challenges, the inaccurate designation will hurt the thousands of hardworking lobstermen, their families, and businesses across our state.”

The letter from Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden slammed the aquarium’s new report on lobster as “irresponsible conjecture, a baseless smear, and an egregious violation of the scientific principles you claim to stand for. This is among the most irresponsible actions we have ever seen in our years of public service, and we are deeply disappointed that you have allowed this action to – perhaps irreparably – tarnish the name of your previously-respected institution.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Federal judge strikes down challenge by Maine, lobstermen to rules aimed at protecting right whales

September 12, 2022 — A federal judge has rejected a bid by lobstermen and the state of Maine to block new rules aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued new rules last year that described where and how lobstermen can fish in federal waters. The agency has said the new rules are intended to protect the remaining population of right whales, which is estimated at about 340.

The plaintiffs, which included both the Maine and Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Associations, as well as Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and the Maine Lobstering Union, asked a federal judge to block those rules, contending that they overstate the risks caused by their trap lines and create needless economic harm to the lobster industry.

They argue that in drafting those rules, the NMFS committed “scientific errors,” in part, because Maine lobstermen say their gear hasn’t been involved with a right whale entanglement in nearly two decades.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Maine lobstermen, politicians rally in protest of fishing restrictions and boycott

September 12, 2022 — Maine lobstermen and their elected leaders are fighting back over two setbacks this week — one in court and one in the marketplace — that could threaten their livelihood.

At a rally in Portland on Friday, they protested a federal judge’s ruling allowing the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to impose limits on where and how lobstermen fish in order to protect endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.

Gov. Janet Mills said, “Regulations that are not based on sound science, not proven fact, and will often pose a risk of devastating Maine’s lobster industry! These guys are fed up. I’m fed up. We’re all fed up!”

The rally was also protesting Seafood Watch, a California-based sustainable seafood advocacy group now advising food distributors and restaurants to boycott Maine lobster.

Read the full article at WABI

Judge rules against lobstermen, says federal rules protecting right whales don’t overreach

September 9, 2022 — A US District Court judge in Washington, D.C., handed a victory Thursday to environmental groups and rejected a challenge to federal rules to protect North Atlantic right whales that was brought by New England lobstermen, who argued the requirements go too far and are based on flawed data, court records show.

The ruling prompted sharp reactions from both sides of the issue.

Maine Governor Janet Mills, criticized the judge’s decision as being “so out of touch with reality.”

“The National Marine Fisheries Service has consistently interpreted the data in the most conservative way possible, without accounting for the impact of ship strikes on whales and whale entanglements in Canadian snow crab gear, putting all of the burden for right whale protection squarely on the shoulders of Maine’s lobster fishery,” Mills said in a statement.

“The good news today is that the court upheld the agency’s science,” Davenport said in an interview. “Of course, from the conservation point of view, the science has never really been in dispute. The question has been what’s the agency doing about the science. And our position has been that it’s not going far enough fast enough to meet the conservation crisis that the right whale is in.”

Lobstermen had argued that a report issued last year by the National Marine Fisheries Service that set new goals for reducing deaths of North Atlantic right whales “overstates the risks lobstering poses to the whale and consequently overregulates the industry,” according to court documents.

“Because [federal officials] overstated their industry’s risk to right whales, they contend, the Rule imposes some needless and draconian risk-reduction measures — e.g., restrictions on the number of vertical fishing lines in certain areas, seasonal closures, and the requirement that fishing lines contain weak links that whales can break free from,” Judge James E. Boasberg wrote.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Retailers pull lobster from menus after ‘red list’ warning

September 9, 2022 — Some retailers are taking lobster off the menu after an assessment from an influential conservation group that the harvest of the seafood poses too much of a risk to rare whales and should be avoided.

Whales can suffer injuries and fatalities when they become entangled in the gear that connects to lobster traps on the ocean floor. Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its “red list” of species to avoid.

The organization, based at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, said in a report that the fishing industry is a danger to North Atlantic right whales because “current management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species.”

housands of businesses use Seafood Watch’s recommendations to inform seafood buying decisions, and many have pledged to avoid any items that appear on the red list. A spokesperson for Blue Apron, the New York meal kit retailer, said the company stopped offering a seasonal lobster box prior to the report, and all of the seafood it is currently using follows Seafood Watch’s guidelines. HelloFresh, the Germany-based meal kit company that is the largest such company operating in the U.S., also pledged shortly after the announcement to stop selling lobster.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

MAINE: Maine politicians blast Seafood Watch rating that tells consumers to avoid eating lobster

September 8, 2022 — California-based Seafood Watch this week issued a recommendation to avoid Maine lobster, drawing the ire of Maine politicians.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch gave a red rating to the U.S. and Canadian lobster industries, saying they aren’t doing enough to protect the North Atlantic right whale.  The whale is endangered and U.S. federal regulators have imposed new fishing gear guidelines to try to help protect the species.

A red rating from Seafood Watch recommends that consumers “take a pass on these for now,” and the group said in a statement that “Canadian and U.S. management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery” of the whales.

Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium that describes itself as “working directly with businesses and governments around the world — increasing both the market demand for, and a reliable supply of, sustainable seafood.”

Read the full article at Spectrum News 

MAINE: Lobstermen and lobster retailers respond to a report red listing Maine lobster

September 8, 2022 — The Monterey Bay Aquarium in California has a Seafood Watch program that rates U.S. and Canadian fisheries on their sustainability. The list seeks to protect endangered species and prevent overfishing.

The watchdog group just red listed American lobster fisheries in Maine, advising consumers, retailers and restaurants to avoid purchasing lobster from Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

The report claims that lobster gear poses a risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale. It’s an assessment that lobstermen say is unfair and inaccurate. Entanglements are the leading cause of death for right whales but no deaths have been linked to Maine lobster gear and the gear hasn’t caused an entanglement in over a decade.

Read the full article at WTMW