April 8, 2019 — A federal agency is seeking a 60 percent to 80 percent reduction in the number of right whales killed or seriously injured by fishing line entanglement – a mandate that could have serious implications for the future of Maine’s $485 million lobster industry.
The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that fishing rope entanglement kills or seriously injures five to nine right whales a year. Federal scientists believe that even a single death a year would prove too much for the endangered species to make a recovery.
If those deaths are split evenly between the U.S. and Canada, a fisheries service assumption that Maine fishermen and regulators question, then Maine and Massachusetts lobstermen would have to find a way to cut their share of the whale entanglement deaths by 6o percent to 80 percent to achieve that goal.
“We know this target is daunting, but it is necessary to ensure the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale population,” said Colleen Coogan, coordinator of the agency-led team created to protect the right whale, in a letter emailed Friday to team members, including Maine fisheries regulators.