September 20, 2022 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that rejected its lawsuit challenging new restrictions on the harvesting of lobster off the Maine coast.
The MLA filed the lawsuit in September 2021.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg denied the MLA’s request in a Sept. 8 ruling. It’s the latest in a string of legal setbacks for lobster fishermen who are coping with increasingly strict fishing rules meant to save North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.