Maine Lobster Industry Faces off against Conservationists over Whale Protections
Maine lobster fishers recently won reprieve on new federal regulations to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whales. According to the Maine’s Lobstermen Association, The regulations could dramatically change lobster fishing practices, impacting fishers and Maine’s island communities who depend upon this resource. In 2023, a federal court ruled in favor of the Center and other groups, finding that NOAA had violated the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, and was not doing enough to reduce the lobster industry’s threat to right whales. But Maine’s community of lobster fishers are encouraged by the decision. “It gives us time to take a breath,” Steve Train, a commercial lobster fisher from Long Island, Maine, tells Food Tank. “Some people think it might be the end of it all, but I think most people see a little light now that we can work under.” “In the last 25 years, there has been one documented entanglement of a North Atlantic right whale in Maine fishing gear,” Train says. more, >>click to read<< 13:16
I did a video talk on this subject and also wrote a song about it. In doing my research, one key thing jumped right out! The Humane Society of America, in trying to make their case about fishing gear, brought up a key fact that could really help Maine lobstermen. They claimed the right whales don’t enter the Gulf of Maine, but instead travel from Cape Cod, straight past Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. How can we be endangering a species of whale that isn’t even here?
Here is the song:
https://youtu.be/NOw7Tr-s59Y?si=5-3S8M3AG5RMJx_d
Here is the talk I did, to help explain the problem to non fishermen.
https://youtu.be/5DEk_ifzyLs?si=j5daif3RAZmD1Bjs