October 4, 2022 — As tensions remain high between lobstermen and federal regulators, NOAA has scheduled a hearing in Portland Wednesday to take public comment on measures designed to protect right whales from entanglement in fishing gear.
Lobster trappers voice beef with federal regulators over right whale protections
October 3, 2022 — Keys to the North Atlantic right whale’s survival as a species extend all along the East Coast of the United States, from vessel speed concerns in vital calving grounds off Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia, to New England and Canadian fixed-gear lobster- and crab-trapping waters.
Federal law dictates human-caused right whale deaths to decline to fewer than one a year. Currently, that statistic sits at more than 30, a real problem when there are fewer than 70 calving female North Atlantic right whales believed to be alive. In all, scientists believe there are fewer than 340 total North Atlantic right whales remaining.
What’s on tap is the second phase of an anticipated three-phase process in which NOAA Fisheries — also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — is developing a comprehensive effort to save the species from extinction. A federal court determined regulations finalized in September 2021 as Phase One of the plan didn’t satisfy the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
“The judge ruled the 2021 final rule should’ve reduced mortality and serious injury, caused by U.S. commercial fisheries, to below (the potential biological removal level, or PBR) within six months of implementation of those 2021 regs,” said Colleen Coogan, branch chief for the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Team in the Protected Resources Division of the NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.
New England Fishery Management Council hears proposals to protect right whales
October 3, 2022 — During its four-day meeting at the Beauport Hotel last week, the Newburyport-based New England Fishery Management Council heard from NOAA Fisheries officials about ways to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale with a proposed 10-knot speed limit for vessels 35 to 65 feet long, expanded seasonal speed zones, and ropeless fishing gear to prevent whales getting entangled in lobster trap lines.
Speed rules
Caroline Good, a large whale ecologist with NOAA Fisheries, presented the proposed rules aimed at reducing right whales from being struck by vessels and killed or injured.
However, the council could not come to a consensus to comment on the proposed changes.
Good said the right whale population continues to decline and is approaching extinction due to death and serious injury from entanglement with fishing gear and vessel strikes. Fewer than 350 individuals remain.
Since 2017, scientists have documented 54 right whales killed or seriously injured in U.S. and Canadian waters. Of those, according to Good’s presentation, 11 were killed due to vessel strikes and nine from entanglements.
Right whales are present in U.S. waters year-round, but in greater numbers during the late fall through early summer, Good said. They are highly vulnerable to vessel strikes due to dense vessel traffic along the East Coast.
MAINE: Portland public meeting on NMFS whale plan set for Oct. 5
September 30, 2022 — An in-person public scoping meeting on proposed changes to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan is scheduled for Portland, Maine, on Oct. 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The event will “collect public input on modifications to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to reduce the risk of death and serious injury caused by U.S. commercial fishing gear to endangered North Atlantic right whales in compliance with the mandates of the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” the agency said in an announcement Thursday morning.
MAINE: DMR Commissioner Keliher to Maine lobstermen: ‘It is imperative that we participate in the process to provide Maine’s input’
September 30, 2022 — Please see the notice below from NOAA regarding an in-person scoping session in Maine. NOAA has scheduled this scoping session because Governor Mills worked with the Secretary of Commerce to ensure she understood how important it was for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to come to Maine and hear directly from Maine fishermen.
As a reminder, this scoping session is being held by the National Marine Fisheries Service in response to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who ruled on the side of environmental non-governmental organizations who have sued the Service for not doing enough to protect right whales.
This decision has forced the NMFS to fast-track the 10 year plan whale plan and implement a 90% risk reduction years ahead of schedule. This scoping meeting is the first part of a process that should take two years to play out, assuming the same federal judge doesn’t continue to rule with the ENGO’s and force a faster timeline.
You might be asking yourself why we should bother to participate in this process if Maine, the MLA and MLU continue to be engaged in the federal court?
Rep. Allison Hepler: Lobster fishery faces more risks
September 30, 2022 — Lobster fishing has never been an easy way to make a living. Any economic endeavor that relies on natural forces and harvesting natural resources carries risk and uncertainties. As someone who represents coastal communities and as a member of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, I’ve learned this firsthand from the hard-working men and women in the industry.
I first wrote about this issue in 2019 in a newspaper column. As I write this new piece, I am shocked and dismayed to see the lobster fishing communities facing increased challenges. This month, a judge ruled in favor of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) opinion on how to best protect right whales. This judge also ruled in favor of achieving a 90% risk reduction in right whale entanglements within the fixed gear industry, of which the lobster industry is one. The result is that the lobster fishery will need to make incredibly significant changes to the way they fish in a year or two, rather than the 10 years that had initially been planned for. This ruling ignores conservation measures already taken by the industry.
For instance, Maine lobster fishermen have been reducing risk to right whales for over 20 years. They’ve replaced floating groundlines with rope that sinks and added more traps to each line, resulting in a reduction of 30,000 miles of rope in the water. In addition, they invested in weak links below the buoys to break if whales encounter gear and they’ve implemented gear marking to identify it if that gear shows up on a right whale entanglement.
NOAA officials get an earful from Maine lobstermen over further efforts to protect right whales
September 29, 2022 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering a new round of measures aimed at reducing the risks that commercial fishing poses to the endangered North Atlantic right whale population.
Several hundred people attended a virtual meeting Tuesday evening, which NOAA officials billed as a forum to collect feedback from fishermen about possible trap limits and more seasonal closures and gear changes.
Most of the speakers were Maine lobstermen, who believe the changes will devastate their businesses and the state’s economy.
“If these things are implemented as I see, we’re going to be turned into seasonal communities,” said Jason Joyce, a fisherman from Swan’s Island. We’re not going to be year-round communities. I think it’s a shame, and honestly being a taxpayer I’m ashamed of my government for pushing this on me.”
Group that claims catching lobsters is harmful to whales draws sharp rebuke in Gloucester
September 27, 2022 — Nothing says “Massachusetts, or really “New England”, like a lobster.
But our iconic crustacean just got a failing grade from an environmental group.
The Seafood Watch Project, which operates out of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, put lobster on their red list. That designation advises consumers not to buy the items on that list due to what they see as a negative impact on the environment from harvesting them.
In this case, the organization says the way lobsters are caught presents a threat to the North Atlantic Right Whale which is an endangered species.
MAINE: Maine lobsterman say ‘red listing’ a threat to their livelihoods without cause
September 26, 2022 — The men and women who harvest Maine lobster say new restrictions on fishing, combined with the so-called “red listing” of lobster by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, are a threat to their livelihoods, and the economy of coastal Maine.
Both the listing and fishing regulations are part of the ongoing efforts to protect the endangered right whale. Fishermen, however, say those steps are misdirected, because they are not to blame for the decline of the right whale.
“I truly believe the lobstermen have done everything we’ve been asked by National Marine Fisheries and the DMR [Maine Department of Marine Resources],” said Gerry Cushman, who has been lobstering in Port Clyde for 38 years.
“We’re not the bad guys here,” he said. “You ask us to do it, we do it. So why are you putting us on the red list?”
The Seafood Watch listing is recommending consumers not buy American lobster from either the U.S. or Canada. Maine is the primary producer of that lobster for the U.S. Cushman said he believes Seafood Watch has taken the action against Maine fishermen to pressure them to stop fighting proposed regulations in court.
“Because we challenged the science. We have that right to be able to challenge science. We have a lot of knowledge, and that’s why we challenge it. But to put us on the red list is a kind of bullying,” he said.
Steve Train, a lobsterman from Long Island in Casco Bay, echoed those points, saying Maine fishermen have followed all the whale protection rules, even though they have also been challenging them in court.
Court weighs vastly different timelines for making new whale rules
September 26, 2022 — The timeline for how fast federal fishery regulators should come up with new rules to protect the endangered right whale is the latest dispute in years of courtroom battles that could decide the future of Maine’s lobster fleet.
Both the conservation groups that sued the federal government for not safeguarding the whales and the federal agency that oversees the fishing industry recently proposed their visions for the pace of rulemaking.
Predictably, the timelines are vastly different.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, the government agency that has been sued for not properly protecting whales, asked the court on Sept. 19 if it could have until December 2024 to come up with new regulations to bring them in line with the Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection acts.
Addressing the deficiencies will require a scientific analysis, public engagement and major advances in fishing technology, wrote Todd Kim, a U.S. assistant attorney general.
That 26-month timeline is “eminently reasonable” and necessary to develop and implement solid rules to protect right whales, argued Kim.