September 3, 2021 — Mainers that make their living fishing for lobster in the Gulf of Maine are coming to terms with new federal regulations this week. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued new guidance for the fishery this week in an effort to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale, but those in Maine’s lobster fishing community say the new rules go too far.
“We knew a lot of this was coming,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher. “But when it finally happens, it’s still a gut punch.”
Leaders in Maine’s fishing community have been working with NOAA for more than a decade to protect right whales. Fishermen told NEWS CENTER Maine that while they were not surprised to see the regulations, they were more extreme than expected.
“I see these regulations as having the potential of injuring fisherman, creating more ghost gear and debris on the ocean flood and costing us a lot more money to rig over for it, for something we’re not doing already. We’re not entangling these whales,” said Casco Bay-based lobsterman Steve Train.
The regulations will close a roughly 950-square-mile area in the Gulf of Maine to traditional lobster fishing from October to January. Rope-less fishing can continue there, but that technology has not been widely adopted in Maine.
Read the full story at News Center Maine