Saving Seafood

Maine lobstermen celebrate, conservationists criticize ruling on fishery closure

October 20, 2021 –Maine lobstermen will not have to stop fishing in an area slated to be off-limits from October through January.

A federal judge granted temporary relief to the Maine Lobstering Union Saturday.

The group sued in an effort to block the seasonal closure of the roughly 1,000-square-mile area.

Federal officials argued the closure is necessary to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

“You’re not going to save a whale by closing down I-95 and we feel like that’s the same implication,” said Virginia Olsen of the Maine Lobstering Union.

The rules issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine Fisheries Service are part of a 10-year plan to reduce the risk of right whales getting tangled in lobster fishing ropes and dying.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in September to challenge the protections which, they argue, will “eliminate” the Maine lobster fishery.

Read the full story at WMUR

 

Maine Lobstering Union Lands Injunction to Halt Right Whale Lobster Fishing Area Closure

October 19, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) was granted emergency relief by U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker on October 16 to halt an impending closure of a lobster fishing area off Maine.

The closure was set to be implemented as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced at the end of August.

After learning of the closure, the MLU, along with other industry groups including the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), sued the NMFS over the right-whale related rule changes.

According to the MLU, the closure would have impacted a large area of “prime lobstering territory.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Judge’s rejection of lobstering ban draws praise of industry, ire of environmentalists

October 18, 2021 — Lobster industry advocates and environmental groups offered starkly different reactions Sunday to a judge’s decision blocking a federal ban on lobstering in a section of the Gulf of Maine designed to protect the endangered right whale.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker, said federal regulators relied on “markedly thin” analysis that didn’t provide hard proof of the whales’ presence in the roughly thousand-square-mile area off the Maine coast. Advocates for the lobster industry had asked for a stay of the three-month ban, arguing there wasn’t evidence that the critically endangered whales actually frequent the area.

Environmental groups accused Walker of relying on his own analysis of data rather than that of scientists. Lobstering advocates, on the other hand, praised the judge for offering a lifeline to the $1.4 billion industry, which is critical to Maine’s economy.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine Lobstermen’s Association files brief in support of motion filed against U.S. Secretary of Commerce to block closure of Maine lobster fishing grounds

October 15, 2021 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has filed a brief in support of a motion filed against the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to block the impending closure of Maine lobster fishing grounds by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The seasonal closure, scheduled to go into effect next week, will bar lobster fishing in 967 square miles off the coast of Maine.

It’s part of a ten year federal plan to protect right whales.

Read the full story at WABI

 

Maine lobster industry decries lack of clarity on enforcement of new whale-protection rules

October 12, 2021 — State and federal regulators say they are prepared to enforce the 967-square-mile area of the Gulf of Maine that will be closed to traditional lobstering for the next three months but have been tight-lipped about what the enforcement will look like or what the penalties might be for anyone who is found in violation of the closure area.

Environmentalists, who support the closure designed to help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from becoming entangled in lobstering gear, say the lack of details isn’t surprising, but Maine lobster industry officials are frustrated by the silence.

According to Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the industry is still grappling with trying to understand why the area is even going to be closed in the first place. The closure goes into effect Oct. 18. 

“Now it’s happening and we’ve had zero correspondence on what the rules of operation will be, what the enforcement will be,” she said. “The entire closure has literally fallen from the sky, and we’ve been given very little information and (told) to get out of there. … Everything I’ve seen is Oct. 18, here’s the box (outlining the closure area), get your gear out.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine Lobstermen’s Association: Maine lobstermen frustrated by whale rules

October 7, 2021 — On Aug.31, the National Marine Fisheries Service released the long-awaited final rule which outlines measures for the Northeast lobster fishery to reduce the risk of entangling right whales by 60 percent. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is committed to action to recover the North Atlantic right whale, but the species cannot rebuild without a conservation plan supported by scientific evidence and comparable measures implemented in Canada and the U.S. shipping industry. The MLA remains extremely concerned that NMFS is placing an unwarranted burden on the Maine lobster fishery.

The U.S. lobster fishery implemented new regulations more than a decade ago which have reduced known right whale entanglement in U.S. lobster gear by 90 percent.

“According to NMFS data, the Maine lobster fishery has not had a documented entanglement with a North Atlantic right whale in over 17 years and has never been known to kill or seriously injure a right whale,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the MLA.

By comparison, an historic number of right whales have died in Canadian waters over the past five years, and Canada has yet to implement protections comparable to the U.S. Moreover, the most current, best available scientific evidence documents a change in right whale migration patterns away from Maine waters and into Canada and other areas.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

 

Whale Protection Regulations Criticized by Opposing Sides

September 29, 2021 — New federal regulations meant to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales are set to be instituted soon.

But they’re facing opposition from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association despite endorsement by marine animal experts, and also being criticized as not stringent enough by environmentalists.

The association has filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce over the 10-year whale protection plan.

It includes regulations like state-specific gear marks, more traps between buoy lines, more seasonal closure areas and requiring weaker ropes that the whales can break.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Lobster Lawsuit: Maine org sues feds over right whale rules

September 28, 2021 — On Monday, Sept. 21, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit challenging NMFS’ new rule for Northeast lobster and Jonah crab fisheries.

The rule, filed on Aug. 31, is a modification of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan and is supposed to reduce the risk of entanglements to North Atlantic right whales in U.S. waters. The association says the modifications address only the perceived risk of Maine fisheries, which have no documented right whale interactions.

The lawsuit, filed against NMFS and the Secretary of Commerce in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that “the federal government’s draconian and fundamentally flawed 10‐year whale protection plan… will all but eliminate the Maine lobster fishery yet still fail to save endangered right whales.” The result would put both fishermen and whales in harm’s way, industry leaders have said.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

US lobster fisheries anxious over upcoming whale protections

July 6, 2021 — The profitable U.S. lobster fishery will soon have to contend with new rules designed to protect an endangered species of whale, and that could necessitate major changes for people in the industry.

The federal government is working on new rules designed to reduce risk to North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 360. One of the threats the whales face is entanglement in ropes that connect to lobster and crab traps in the ocean.

The new rules are expected to be released late this summer or early in fall, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Early indications show that the changes required by the rules could be significant.

Right whales were once abundant off the East Coast, but they were decimated by hunting during the commercial whaling era. They’ve been listed as endangered since 1970, but the population remains small, and in jeopardy. Recent years have also brought high mortality and poor reproduction among the whales.

They’re also vulnerable to ship strikes, and face the looming threat of warming oceans. Acting NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Paul Doremus said in June that the U.S. and Canada, which also harvests lobsters, must “take and sustain additional efforts to reduce right whale mortalities and serious injuries.”

The rules will focus on reducing the number of vertical ropes in the water, and they’re also expected to modify restricted areas of ocean, the government has said. A conservation framework released by the federal government in May states that the first phase of rules will be designed to reduce risk to the whales by 60%.

The lobster industry is prepared to do its part to conserve the whales, but a near complete risk reduction would require a total overhaul of the fishery, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

BILL MCWEENY: Innovation can save whales and lobstermen

June 21, 2021 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) claims that NOAA’s rulemaking efforts to address entanglement threats are an overreach because right whales no longer come to the Gulf of Maine, and over many decades, only one right whale has been found in Maine lobster gear.

I feel it is important to correct MLA on several counts, as it is unfortunately presenting only a small part of this complex story. First, since 1980, right whale scientists have photographed right whales throughout their range and have documented at least 1,617 entanglements involving 87 percent of the population based on the presence of entanglement scars or attached fishing gear. The research suggests that right whales are being entangled in all types of United States and Canadian east coast fishing gear with often 60 or more entanglement events per year.

Also, while some right whales have shifted their distribution, they still occur in waters that Maine lobstermen fish in every month of the year with some sightings in Maine state waters. Acoustic data backs up past official and opportunistic sightings confirming that right whales are no strangers to Maine fishing grounds. A recent deployment of acoustic buoys recorded calls from right whales off Casco Bay, Monhegan Island, Milbridge, Great Duck Island, Lubec, the Schoodic ridges, all around Mount Desert Rock and many calls from Outer Falls.

MLA states on its website that only one right whale has ever been entangled in Maine gear, and that was in 2002. It is mistaken. It is true that there was a right whale entangled in Maine lobster gear in 2002 and it was disentangled and is probably alive today because of that. But the MLA fails to acknowledge two other cases.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American