May 17, 2018 — MARSHFIELD, Mass. — A dozen lobstermen hauled traps onto boats, tinkered with on-board computer systems and chatted, as they waited for the high tide they needed to clear the channel out of Green Harbor and get to work.
South Shore lobstermen are back on the water this week after more than a three month ban on lobster fishing, aimed at protecting endangered whales. The ban was supposed to be from Feb. 1 to April 30, but an additional two weeks was added because whales were spotted close to the shore last month. In all, local lobstermen have gone 15 weeks without pulling a trap or making a sale.
“We’re going into the season broke, let’s put it that way,” fisherman Dana Blackman said Wednesday morning, the day after lobster fishing resumed.
Lobster fishing on the South Shore used to be a year-round industry, but in 2014 federal regulators made it illegal to use lobstering equipment off the southern Massachusetts coast in February, March and April when the endangered North Atlantic right whales are in the area and could be injured or killed by fishing gear and boats.
The ban affects about 75 lobster boats in Marshfield and Scituate alone.
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