May 11, 2015 — Some lobstermen plowed snow and worked side jobs during the three-month closure that ended May 1. Others repaired their equipment and puttered around, living off their savings.
South Shore lobstermen John Haviland and Mike Lane spent the downtime poring over more than 1,000 pages of data and methodology from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.
The new plan bans the use of lobstering equipment from Feb. 1 to April 30 off Cape Cod Bay and beyond, shutting down the local industry for the winter.
Haviland, Lane and Lori Caron, whose boyfriend is a lobsterman, visited the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies to learn about humpback and right whales, and how entanglements with fishing gear threaten the endangered species.
They contacted federal officials and scientists from the New England Aquarium. They traveled to Rhode Island to see the ropes that responders have removed from the mammals.
Read the full story from The Patriot Ledger