Tag Archives: in Portland

Lobstermen to state: ‘Step up’ and sue feds over gear, fishing restrictions

Stonington lobsterman Dwight Staples’ 37-foot lobster boat provides the essentials for 10 people. “This year has been different for me and maybe it has for you as well,” he told a large crowd in Portland Wednesday. “This year it seems so much I have to get up and fight to go to work. With all these restrictions, regulations coming down the pike, it seems as though we’ve had to get up and fight each and every day.” Staples addressed hundreds at a rally organized by the Maine Lobstering Union to oppose federal regulations on lobster gear and restrictions on fishing areas designed to protect endangered right whales. Union Director Virginia Olsen and others who are fighting the new federal regulations called on Attorney General Aaron Frey Wednesday to file suit against the federal government, rather than serve as an intervenor. >click to read< 17:25