April 10, 2026 — U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Angus King (I-ME) are calling for continued engagement with Maine’s seafood industry stakeholders. In a letter to Eugenio Piñero Soler, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Marine Fisheries Service, the senators urge NMFS to heed the well-founded concerns expressed by Maine’s lobstermen and fishermen regarding ropeless gear and to include them in any further regulatory discussions.
“Maine lobstermen’s concerns about ropeless gear are well-documented and deserve serious consideration. It is important to give full and meaningful weight to concerns raised by fishermen regarding ropeless/on-demand fishing gear as NMFS’s core strategy for North Atlantic right whale (NARW) conservation. We urge you to continue to explore other options, such as Dynamic Area Management with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and strongly encourage you to continue engaging fishermen directly as your agency approaches new rulemaking on this issue,” the senators wrote.