Saving Seafood

The Case for Ropeless

June 27, 2023 — Allow me to touch a “third rail” of fisheries politics: Lobstermen, crabbers, and other fishermen currently in the crosshairs of environmental groups over whale entanglements need to get behind ropeless fishing technology. On-demand gear can keep you on the water when the presence of whales would otherwise trigger a closure, it’s not about admitting defeat but find opportunities to keep fishing.

Coming is the time when trap fisheries will face two options: start using ropeless gear, or lose significant chunks – if not all ­– of the fishing season. Resistance now will likely put many in a world of pain later.

Over the years I have participated in numerous fixed gear fisheries in the North Pacific. I have also written extensively on whale entanglements in West Coast Dungeness crab and in other fisheries here for National Fisherman and in other outlets. I often find myself as not only a bridge builder but also an antagonist.

I’m willing to call out the bad actors and misdeeds within the commercial fishing industry while also critical of the bad faith engagement and the reckless hyperbole some of the environmental organizations using both the courts and media to attack working-class fishermen. In this position I found myself resistant to ropeless fishing gear, seeing it as an unfounded and expensive proposition.

But over the past few years I have changed my mind. I now see ropeless as the best forward to save fisheries, whales, and the reputation of an industry currently facing a public relations crisis.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Court hands lobstermen a win

June 27, 2023 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling on June 16 overturning a lower court’s ruling that would have required the lobster fishery to eliminate virtually any risk—no matter how minute—that North Atlantic right whales could become entangled in lobstering gear.

“Maine’s lobstermen and women have long demonstrated their commitment to maintaining and protecting a sustainable fishery in the Gulf of Maine,” said Gov. Janet Mills in a joint statement with the state’s federal delegation. “Today’s decision vindicates what the Maine lobster fishery, and the countless communities that rely on it, knew all along—that their practices support the conservation of the gulf ecosystem for generations to come.”

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Press

MAINE: Maine congressman’s bill to block wind power from Lobster Management Area 1

June 23, 2023 — Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, introduced a bill in Congress that would block commercial offshore wind development from Lobster Management Area 1, and require a new study of how federal agencies are conducting environmental reviews for potential wind projects in the Gulf of Maine.

“BOEM’s decision not to remove one of the most lucrative and productive fishing grounds in the region from consideration for commercial offshore wind projects is just the latest in a series of unrelenting challenges to Maine fishermen,” Golden said in announcing the bill Thursday. “Prohibiting commercial wind development in LMA 1 protects Maine fishermen’s way of life and of making a living for their families and their communities, just as they have for generations.”

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has identified more than 9.8 million areas of federal waters in the Gulf of Maine for consideration as wind energy areas for future leasing to developers. The agency included LMA 1 “and areas closed seasonally or permanently to protect the North Atlantic right whale, as potential commercial offshore wind sites,” according to Golden. “Prohibiting offshore wind development in LMA 1 would help to avoid conflict with the New England commercial and recreational fishing industries.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW HAMPSHIRE: What new federal ruling on lobsters means for N.H.

June 21, 2023 —  On Friday, a federal appeals court sided with lobstermen, ruling that a federal agency went too far in imposing restrictions meant to protect an endangered whale species. 

Governor Chris Sununu celebrated the decision as a win for New Hampshire’s lobster industry. The state has hundreds of commercial and recreation trappers, according to his office, which has previously said it will do all it can to protect the state’s most important fishery. 

“I’m thrilled that the D.C. Circuit Court ruled in favor of New England’s lobstermen after New Hampshire supported their lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service,” he said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

Federal judges: Data does not prove Maine lobstering endangers whales

June 22, 2023 — Maine lobstermen have secured a huge win in federal appeals court, thanks to a ruling over the long-debated belief that lobster fishing puts whales at risk.

Friday, a panel of judges ruled that data on entanglements in lobster fishing gear does not support the need for the new strict limits on where and how lobstermen could fish.

Those regulations, set by the National Marine Fisheries Service, were put in place under the authority of the Endangered Species Act to protect the 340 North Atlantic Right Whales whales left.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association says there is no evidence of Maine lobster gear ever killing a whale. There has been no documented entanglement of a North Atlantic Right Whale since 2004.

Read the full article at WTMW

No more rules for Maine’s lobster industry without better whale entanglement data

June 21, 2023 — We don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but a federal court ruling last week reiterated a point that we’ve been making for years — more complete data are needed for federal regulators to justify stringent regulations on Maine’s lobster fishing industry.

On Friday, a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the plan, called a biological opinion, that undergirded recent rules from the National Marine Fisheries Service aimed at making lobster and crab fishing safer for endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The court ruled that, in the absence of definitive information that right whales are being trapped in lobster and crab fishing gear, the agency couldn’t use a worst-case scenario to justify a suite of new rules on the two fisheries. The agency had called for changes in fishing gear and put parts of the ocean in New England off limits to lobster and crab fishing for several months a year.

Technically, the rules remain in place as the appeals court remanded the case back to a district court to vacate the biological opinion. But the practical impact is that fisheries service will likely have to go back to the drawing board to write a new biological opinion and any rules that stem from it.

In addition to the lawsuit, filed by lobster and crab fishing groups and the state of Maine, Congress had already granted the fisheries a six-year reprieve from new, stricter regulations through a provision added to the federal omnibus bill passed in December.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

Maine lobstermen score victory in appeal over gear rules intended to protect right whales

June 20, 2023 — Maine’s lobster industry scored a major legal victory Friday when an appellate court ruled federal regulators went too far to try to protect endangered whales.

In a stinging ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia invalidated the biological opinion that the National Marine Fisheries Services used to impose stricter fishing regulations on lobstermen in the Gulf of Maine. In a 3-0 opinion, the court called the scientific assessment done by federal regulators “arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law” and that the agency made assumptions about the cause of North Atlantic right whale deaths with “little empirical support.”

The agency will now have to redo the scientific assessment that underlies the stricter fishing regulations that the agency tried to impose but that Maine’s congressional delegation managed to delay.

“A presumption also ignores that worst-case scenarios lie on all sides,” reads the ruling. “It is not hard to indulge in one here: ropeless fishing technologies, weak links, inserts, and trawls may not work; permanent fishery closures may be the only solution. The result may be great physical and human capital destroyed, and thousands of jobs lost, with all the degradation that attends such dislocations.”

Scientists estimate there are fewer than 350 right whales left and that entanglements in rope from fishing gear pose a major threat to the survival of the species alongside collisions with ships and environmental changes. The lobster industry and its allies in Maine staunchly disagree and argue that the industry has taken numerous steps — at significant financial cost to fishermen — to avoid entanglements and ensure that lobster ropes and gear break free if a whale encounters them.

Read the full article at nhpr

New England lobstermen win favorable ruling from appellate court

June 20, 2023 — New England lobstermen have won a favorable ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which reversed a lower court decision and has granted relief.

In a decision Friday afternoon, Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg – the senior justice – wrote that the court was reversing a summary judgment of the District Court for the National Marine Fisheries Service and awarding a summary judgment to the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the State of Maine Department of Marine Resources.

In the decision, the court ruled that the “federal government went too far” in its regulatory process “when they sought to impose significant restrictions on New England’s lobster industry, according to a release.

Read the full article at the The Center Square

Appeals court grants Maine lobster industry an “overwhelming victory” in right whale rules fight

June 16, 2023 –A U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled in favor of Maine lobstermen in ordering the National Marine Fisheries Service to vacate a 2021 biological opinion regarding North Atlantic right whales that led to more stringent rules being implemented for lobster fishing.

The unanimous 3-0 ruling, filed with a majority opinion written by U.S. Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg, found the service went too far in its analysis of the lobster and Jonah crab industries’ potential harm to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Mills, delegation urge feds to remove lobster fishing grounds from offshore wind consideration

June 15, 2023 — Maine’s congressional delegation and Gov. Janet Mills are urging federal officials to remove an area of prime lobster fishing ground from consideration as a site for potential offshore wind development.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is soliciting feedback on some 9.8 million acres to site potential commercial projects in the Gulf of Maine.

In a letter to federal officials, Mills and the delegation said the fishing territory in question — known as Lobster Management Area 1 that encompasses much of the Maine and Massachusetts coastlines — should be taken off the table.

Read the full article at Maine Public