Saving Seafood

Lobster industry project to use whale tracking, reduce entanglement risk

January 13, 2024 — A group of Northeast seafood processors have developed a project to help reduce the danger of endangered North Atlantic right whales entangling in the U.S. and Canadian lobster fishery.

In a Jan. 10 statement, backers of the new “Fishery Improvement Project (FIP)” said they have support of retailers and are working in collaboration with fisheries experts and non-government organizations. Their newly formed Fishery Impact Fund was approved by FisheryProgress, an online organization drawn from the seafood industry, environmental and social NGOs. Their website “provides information on the progress of global fishery improvement projects, and serves as a resource to retailers and other seafood buyers to evaluate the credibility and robustness of FIPs.”

One key backer is Northern Wind LLC, a New Bedford, Mass., producer of high quality fresh and frozen seafood.

“Our retail and food service clients are committed to supporting the North American lobster industry, but expressed concern that the fishery addresses whale entanglement risk,” said Ken Melanson, the chairman and founder of Northern Wind. “This fishery improvement project will give participants in the lobster fishery the information they need to avoid setting traps in areas where whales are known to be, or expected to be. This puts our industry ahead of the curve to maintain lobster harvesting, while addressing entanglement concerns.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Maine lobstermen sue over federal monitor requirements

January 10, 2024 — Maine lobstermen are making a last-ditch push to scuttle a federal monitoring program seeking to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, lawyers for five lobstermen argue that new federal fisheries monitoring rules violate the Fourth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The restrictions, which went into effect on Dec. 15, require Maine lobstermen with federal lobster fishing permits to install 24-hour electronic tracking devices on their vessels.

The lobstermen allege the feds are collecting the monitoring data for purposes unrelated to commercial fishing, such as mapping potential areas to develop offshore wind power, which is “improper and a manifest violation of their constitutionally protected privacy rights.”

Read the full article at the Center Square

US lobster project to use tracking data to avoid right whale entanglements

January 10, 2024 — A group of seafood processors and sellers, working in collaboration with fishery NGOs and fishery experts, have developed a fishery improvement project (FIP) to reduce North Atlantic Right Whale entanglements in the US lobster fishery.

The plan involves using data from the New England Aquarium’s publicly available WhaleMap web application, which pinpoints the location of right whales during their annual migration, according to a statement released Wednesday (Jan. 10).

“This fishery improvement project will give participants in the lobster fishery the information they need to avoid setting traps in areas where whales are known to be or expected to be,” said Northern Wind founder and chief executive officer Ken Melanson in the press release. “This puts our industry ahead of the curve to maintain lobster harvesting while addressing entanglement concerns.”

Melanson said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Modernization Act mandates electronic traceability, and this project will address that.

“The approval of this project will provide buyers and processors with a pathway to develop internal sustainability policies, and to develop programs and procedures that foster and encourage sustainability,” he said. “It will allow large retail and food service buyers to continue to source from the fishery while the fishery is working to add additional protections beyond management measures in the overall effort to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

Read the full article at Undercurrent News

Massachusetts lobstermen drop lawsuit against California aquarium that told people to stop eating lobster

January 10, 2023 — The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has ended its fight against a California aquarium that says people shouldn’t buy and eat lobster because of the risks the fishery poses on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

A federal judge in the Northern District of California on Monday dismissed a class action lawsuit that four Bay State lobstermen filed last March against the Monterey Bay Aquarium after the two sides agreed to end the months-long dispute with prejudice.

Monterey Bay in September 2022 gave the American lobster a “red rating” on its Seafood Watch, recommending consumers to avoid the species caught by trap from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank stocks.

The action prompted the four lobstermen to file the suit months later, seeking $75,000 in damages for disparagement of their aquaculture product and interference with their proprietary rights.

“After lengthy discussions among the named individuals in the suit, they agreed to dismiss the Class Action Suit as a win in the California court is highly unlikely and extremely costly,” the MLA said in a statement to the Herald on Tuesday. “The laws in California would ultimately hold these individuals financially responsible for the defendant’s legal fees should they prevail.”

The aquarium had asserted that trapping lobsters had contributed to the depletion of the population of Northern Atlantic right whales, an endangered species at high risk of extinction. There are fewer than 340 such whales today, and the aquarium says entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of injury and death.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

Lobster fishers sue to block monitoring laws designed to help save a rare whale

January 8, 2024 — A group of lobster fishermen has sued fishing regulators in federal court, claiming that new electronic monitoring requirements designed to protect rare whales are unconstitutional.

The new rules went into effect on Dec. 15 and require fishermen with federal lobster fishing permits to install 24-hour electronic tracking devices on their boats. The Maine Department of Marine Resources, which regulates fisheries in Maine, has promoted the new rule as a way to collect better data that can both benefit the fishery and help save the vanishing North Atlantic right whale, which is vulnerable to potentially lethal entanglement in fishing gear.

Five lobstermen who are members of a lobster fishing union filed their lawsuit in federal court last week. The fishermen said they oppose the requirement that the tracking devices must be operational regardless of what the boat is being used for at the time.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Maine lobstermen sue over monitoring laws

January 7, 2024 — Five Maine lobstermen have filed a lawsuit against the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) over recently enacted rules requiring all Maine lobstermen with federal lobster fishing permits to install 24-hour electronic tracking devices on their vessels.

The rule went into force on 15 December and stems from a higher-level decision made by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) calling for individual state departments to create rules establishing around-the-clock tracking requirements on both American lobster fishing vessels and Jonah crab fishing vessels. One of the main stated goals of the plan is to help reduce the risk of lobster gear entangling critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Maine lobstermen sue state over requirement to track boats

January 4, 2024 — Five lobstermen are suing the Maine Department of Marine Resources over a new regulation that requires tracking devices on boats that fish in federal waters, saying the devices violate their privacy rights.

The trackers had to be installed by Dec. 15 under a new regulation from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. According to the department, the trackers periodically monitor the locations of a lobstering or crabbing vessel to help identify fishing patterns, which are then used to help grow the fishing stock and better protect the endangered North American right whale population – a contentious issue in the fishing community.

But the lobstermen and other fishing groups believe the trackers violate multiple amendments of the U.S. Constitution and threaten the fishermen’s personal and commercial interests.

“The plaintiffs contend that minute-by-minute surveillance of Maine’s federally licensed lobster fleet is unconstitutional, unwarranted and unfair to Maine lobstermen, who have proven through the actions of generations of lobstering families that they are good stewards of the ocean ecosystems essential to their livelihoods,” Portland attorney Thimi Mina, who is representing the lobstermen, said in a statement.

Read the full article at the Press Herald

MAINE: Maine lobstermen sue the state over electronic boat tracking rules

January 3, 2024 — Five lobstermen are suing the Maine Department of Marine Resources in an effort to stop new electronic boat monitoring requirements.

Under new rules that went into effect last month, lobstermen with federal fishing permits must install monitors on their boats that track their location each minute.

Attorney Thimi Mina said the lobstermen believe that the tracking is a violation of their constitutional right to privacy, equal protection and due process.

Read the full article at nhpr

Judge denies Red Lobster’s motion to dismiss class-action sustainability suit

January 3, 2024 — A federal judge has denied Red Lobster’s motion to dismiss a class-action fraud lawsuit alleging that the restaurant chain sold Maine lobster and farmed shrimp that is not as sustainable as the company claims.

U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt denied the motion to dismiss the class action complaint, originally filed by Dezzi Rae Marshall in the U.S. state of California against Orlando, Florida, U.S.A-based Red Lobster. Marshall – represented by Richman Law and Policy, which has brought similar lawsuits against ALDI, Cooke, and other companies – alleges that the company’s shrimp and lobster are sourced from farms and fisheries that don’t meet high environmental standards.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts gets more than $4 million for new lobster fishing gear to protect right whales, other measures

December 31, 2023 — The feds are shellin’ out millions of dollars to the Bay State for new lobster fishing gear in the hopes of protecting North Atlantic right whales.

The Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Marine Fisheries on Friday announced that it will receive more than $4.6 million from a congressional appropriation to boost DMF’s conservation program for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

DMF will use part of this funding from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to provide new lobster fishing gear that’s designed to protect right whales.

Massachusetts near-shore waters host up to 80% of the total population of North Atlantic right whales in late winter and early spring — as the whales migrate north and feed in the nutrient-rich waters of Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay. The two greatest threats for the endangered species are entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes, according to advocates.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald