August 21, 2020 — A federal judge has ordered fishery managers to reanalyze the impact of the American lobster industry on endangered North Atlantic right whales, and issue a new rule for protecting the whales by May 31, 2021.
The judge did not, however, ban lobster fishing with vertical buoy lines in a right whale feeding area, as environmental advocates requested.
Part of Cape Cod Bay is already closed to lobster fishing in the late winter and early spring to protect right whales from getting tangled in fishing gear. But environmental groups — The Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Conservation Law Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity — wanted an additional area in southern New England closed immediately as well.
U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, who ruled on the matter this week, said a sudden closure “would disrupt fishermen’s current operations and their near-term plans.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has gutted the market for lobster, cutting the price in half and pushing fishermen, most of whom are self-employed, to the economic brink,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling.