Saving Seafood

Opinion on The Maine Lobstermen Decision and Recent Federal Fisheries Actions

September 8, 2026 — The following opinion was published by Samuel Blatchley:

Three years ago the D.C. Circuit told the National Marine Fisheries Service it could not build a biological opinion on worst-case assumptions. Last week the agency wrote that principle into its own priorities.

In Maine Lobstermen’s Ass’n v. National Marine Fisheries Service, 70 F.4th 582 (D.C. Cir. 2023), the court held that the Service may not, when faced with uncertainty, give the benefit of the doubt to an endangered species by relying on worst-case scenarios or pessimistic assumptions. The ESA calls for an empirical judgment about what is likely. The effects of an action are those reasonably certain to occur, found on clear and substantial information. Projections the agency itself concedes are very likely wrong do not meet that standard. The court reversed, directed judgment for the lobstermen, and ordered the biological opinion vacated as applied to the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. I was on the case for the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, alongside the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the State of Maine, and Lodge 207. Our clients were facing regulations that would have taken jobs and boats out of the water.

Two things happened last week that build on it.

On September 1 the House passed H.R. 9436, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, 219 to 196, extending the current regulatory pause for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries from 2028 to 2035. The Administration issued a statement strongly supporting passage. It now goes to the Senate.

On September 2 NOAA Fisheries issued its agency-level priorities. On the Northeast lobster fishery, the agency states it will not mandate ropeless gear, that any decision support tools or models used by the Take Reduction Team must be independently and empirically reviewed, and that any future Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan will rest on best available data rather than worst-case scenario modeling.

That last clause applies the principle the court enforced in 2023, and returns the agency to the position it had taken itself in 2019 before the biological opinion abandoned it.

Worth keeping the distinction clear. The bill would change a statute. The priorities document is a policy statement that amends nothing and can be withdrawn. What lasts is the record. The Take Reduction Team is building the file the next rule will stand on, and how its models get vetted will matter long after the announcement does.

Common sense science is not a slogan. It is what the statute already required, and what it took a court to enforce. The Senate should pass H.R. 9436, and the agency should be held to the standard it has now stated, so the next rule protects both the whale and the communities that fish alongside it.

#FisheriesLaw #Lobster #EndangeredSpeciesAct #RightWhale #AdministrativeLaw

Samuel P. Blatchley is a maritime, fisheries, and insurance attorney and Proctor in Admiralty at Eckland & Blando LLP, where he represents vessel owners, commercial fishermen, marine businesses, insurers, and industry organizations in complex litigation, regulatory matters, marine casualties, coverage disputes, and commercial disputes throughout the United States. His practice includes federal admiralty litigation, fisheries and environmental regulation, marine insurance, limitation of liability, vessel arrests and maritime liens, and matters involving NOAA Fisheries and other federal and state agencies. He has represented fishing-industry interests in significant state and federal litigation, including the D.C. Circuit challenge to NOAA Fisheries’ North Atlantic right whale regulations on behalf of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. Blatchley is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New York and is a graduate of Tulane University Law School, where he earned a Maritime Law Certificate and served on the Tulane Maritime Law Journal.

US House passes bill delaying start of new right whale rules

September 3, 2026 — The U.S. House has passed a bill that would delay the start of new federal regulations intended to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The bill, known as the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, would extend an existing moratorium on new federal rules for fishermen until 2035.

The current moratorium, which was championed by Maine’s congressional delegation and inserted into a 2023 budget measure, is set to lift at the end of 2028.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced the beginning of a public comment period intended the launch discussions about new federal regulations, which the agency said must be in place by the last day of 2028.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Lobstermen buoyed by US House passage of Golden bill to pause right whale protections until 2035

September 3, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill to extend the pause on federal lobster rules in a 219-196 vote.

If passed by the Senate, the bill — introduced by Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Michael Lawler (R-New York) in June — would continue shielding lobstermen from new regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales until 2035.

In a statement, Golden described it as a win not only for the Maine fishing industry, but also for bipartisan work in Congress.

“While the threat of unnecessary, industry-killing regulations is a matter of survival for lobster harvesters in Maine, the issues at play affect fishermen across the Northeast,” Golden said. “Building bridges across party lines is essential for a functional Congress, but unfortunately, it’s a skill that has been lost for far too many members.”

Read the full article at Maine Morning Star

US House votes to extend pause on new lobster regulations for seven years

September 2, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend a moratorium on new lobster regulations related to North Atlantic right whales through 2035.

“Maine’s iconic lobster fishery contributes billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and employs thousands of Mainers. Unfortunately, the men and women who work the fishery have dealt with extreme regulatory uncertainty that threatens to stifle lobster fishing,” House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

House passes bill extending right whale regulatory pause

September 2, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 9436, legislation that would extend the current pause on new North Atlantic right whale regulations affecting the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries through 2035.

The Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026 passed the House on Sept. 1 by a 219-196 vote. The bill would extend the existing regulatory pause from its current expiration at the end of 2028 to Dec. 31, 2035.

The legislation has drawn support from Northeast commercial fishing organizations, which argue additional time is needed for ongoing research and technology development to inform future whale regulations. Conservation groups, meanwhile, say the extension would delay measures they believe are necessary to reduce the risk of serious injury and mortality to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), which urged lawmakers to pass the measure ahead of the House vote, welcomed its passage.

“The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association strongly supports passage of H.R. 9436,” Jason Joyce, NEFSA’s director of advocacy, said in a statement provided to National Fisherman.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: Lobsters remain plentiful in Maine, but outside forces cast uncertainty on industry

September 1, 2026 — There was a time when lobsters were so abundant along the Maine coast that they could be plucked by hand from shallow water. Those days are long gone, but for most people — whose interactions with lobsters happen on plates and rolls — it might be hard to say how lobsters and the lobster industry are doing. Lobster rolls might cost more, like everything else, but they’re still available.

Lobstermen are at the mercy of a range of outside forces: economic, ecological, regulatory. Trends in the lobster harvest and its value suggest lobstering is in a healthy position right now. But zooming out to include factors such as global trade and climate change show there is much uncertainty.

In the long view, the number of lobsters coming across wharfs is way up. From 1950 until the end of the 1980s, Maine lobstermen were landing around 20 million pounds of lobster each year. Some years the amount deviated, as low as 16 million and as high as 24 million, but the catch looks pretty consistent through those four decades.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchour

MAINE: What’s the biggest threat to the lobster industry?

September 1, 2026 — Lobstermen are under threat. They all agree on that much. The threats they describe vary from one to the next. But they are worried about their future, and the future of a livelihood that many learned from their fathers and grandfathers and want to pass to their children and grandchildren.

The risks are larger than any one lobsterman — or even the industry as a whole. Lobstering “is not only an economic driver of coastal and island communities, it is an identity of our communities,” said Kristin Garabedian, a community development officer with the Island Institute’s Center for the Marine Economy. In other words, losing lobstering would make a town like Harpswell less like Harpswell.

Most lobstermen see the biggest threats coming from outsiders pursuing their own aims without regard for the lobstermen who live and work here. Those might be wind-power proponents, whale protectors, big businesses or homebuyers.

Few, if any, see climate change as an immediate or catastrophic threat, although they are deeply in tune with the changes happening in the Gulf of Maine and are worried about human impacts on the environment they depend on.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor 

House to take up bill extending right whale regulatory pause to 2035

August 31, 2026 — A bill that would extend the current pause on the new North Atlantic right whale regulations affecting the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries until 2035 is moving toward a vote in the U.S. House, with fishing industry groups renewing calls for lawmakers to pass the measure.

H.R. 9436, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, would extend the existing regulator pause from its current 2028 expiration to 2035. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-New York, and Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine.

As National Fisherman reported in July, the House Natural Resources Committee advanced the bill in a bipartisan 22-13 vote on July 15. The committee has since formally reported the legislation, and it is moving toward consideration by the full House.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), one of several commercial fishing organizations supporting the extension, sent a letter to Congress ahead of the expected House consideration urging lawmakers to pass the bill.

“As H.R. 9436 comes before the full House, we respectfully ask you to support its passage and to help ensure that this bipartisan committee-supported legislation moves forward without delay,” NEFSA Vice President John Drouin wrote to Congress.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Maine lobster protected: Canada removes seafood from retaliatory tariffs

August 28, 2026 — Lobstermen in Maine breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after Canada amended its retaliatory tariffs against the United States, removing seafood and fish products from the items that will face the new fee.

In an announcement late Wednesday night, Canada’s Department of Finance said the Canadian government was working with Canadian industries to assess the effectiveness of retaliatory tariffs. Based on feedback, the department said it made “select adjustments to protect against broader economic harms.”

Read the full article at WMTW

Invasive green crabs are bad for the environment so New Englanders are starting to eat more of them

August 26, 2026 — As a morning fog lifted over Maine’s York River, Mike Masi and his two interns stood on a dock sorting through a mound of one of the region’s most despised crabs and hoped to find a few that would end up on a gastronome’s plate somewhere in New England.

The trick is to identify invasive European green crabs that are about to shed their hard shell, or molt, revealing a softer exterior that has the feel of a leather couch, and are popular at restaurants. Not only do these green crabs fetch more money — Masi can get $3 a crab at market compared to as little as 8 cents for a hard shell — but catching them provides a service of sorts to the ocean’s ecosystem.

“Just about everyone hates them and we’re trying to turn them into a premium seafood product,” said Masi, whose company, shell+claw, is the only one that commercially cultivates these crabs.

Masi, a 45-year-old former marine science teacher, is part of a growing movement across New England aiming to lessen the crabs’ destructive impact by developing new markets. Others are putting green crabs in pet treats, fish sauce and even a line of green crab whiskey in New Hampshire.

The green crabs, Carcinus maenas, made their way from Europe to the East Coast in the ballast waters of ships hundreds of years ago. Numbering in the tens of millions, they outcompete Atlantic rock crab and juvenile lobster, destroy eelgrass beds and undermine salt marsh banks. They also are costing the region’s shellfish industry tens of millions of dollars each year, as they eat mussels, oysters and soft-shell clams.

Read the full article at ABC News