April 10, 2020 — The National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act by not properly reporting the lobster industry’s harmful impacts on the North Atlantic right whale, which it knew to be more than three times what the dwindling species could sustain, according to a federal judge.
In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg accused the service of failing to follow the letter of the landmark environmental law because it would have meant the fishery, which rakes in millions of lobster and dollars each year, would not be able to proceed.
“The service and the statute pass each other like ships in the night,” Boasberg wrote in his 20-page ruling.
The decision caught the Maine Department of Marine Resources, which regulates Maine’s $485 million-a-year lobster fishery, and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the industry’s largest trade association, off guard. Both agency and association officials said they needed time to digest the ruling before commenting.