Saving Seafood

  • Home
  • News
    • Alerts
    • Conservation & Environment
    • Council Actions
    • Economic Impact
    • Enforcement
    • International & Trade
    • Law
    • Management & Regulation
    • Regulations
    • Nutrition
    • Opinion
    • Other News
    • Safety
    • Science
    • State and Local
  • News by Region
    • New England
    • Mid-Atlantic
    • South Atlantic
    • Gulf of Mexico
    • Pacific
    • North Pacific
    • Western Pacific
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Fishing Terms Glossary

MAINE: Lobster industry hails executive order easing fishery regulations

April 22, 2025 — Lobster trade associations in Maine are hailing an executive order from the White House that would ease or eliminate regulations on seafood fisheries.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association “has been fighting government overregulation for years and won a historic court case that challenged draconian whale rules taking a big step forward in ending this abuse of power,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. The executive order “recognizes the challenges our fishing families and communities face and we appreciate the commitment to reduce burdensome regulations and strengthen the competitiveness of American seafood.”

“Maine fishermen have been supporting Maine’s economy for generations,” said Virginia Olsen, a lobster fisherman and director of the Maine Lobstering Union.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

Maine Lobstering Union’s Lobster 207 wins $5M settlement

January 9, 2025 — The Maine Lobstering Union’s cooperative, Lobster 207, recently closed a significant chapter with a settlement exceeding $5 million, marking the end of a five-year legal battle against its former CEO, Warren Pettegrow, and his family.

This victory represents not only a financial win but also a pivotal moment in the co-op’s mission to uphold fairness in Maine’s famed lobster industry.

According to Maine Biz, the dispute began after Lobster 207 purchased the wholesale division of Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound in 2017, bringing Warren Pettegrow on as CEO. The Pettegrows agreed to step away from the wholesale business to avoid competition with Lobster 207. However, by 2019, allegations of financial misconduct and breaches of this agreement surfaced, leading to a lawsuit in federal court. The co-op accused the Pettegrows of fraudulent practices, which included issuing false invoices and competing directly with the business they had sold to Lobster 207.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Maine Lobstering Union drops part of lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries

August 25, 2022 — The Maine Lobstering Union is agreeing to drop part of its lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Services, where the federal agency is closing a 960-square-mile section of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishers.

Federal regulators said this section of ocean is prime habitat for North Atlantic right whales and argued blocking that part of the ocean off from buoy lines from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, 2023, would help reduce the risk posed to entanglements between lobster gear and whales.

Alfred C Frawley with McCloskey, Mina, Cunniff, and Frawley, LLC, said in an email the move was made as federal agencies add more regulations against the lobster industry.

“The MLU has taken the procedural step of agreeing to dismiss its case in Maine, which was largely mooted by the DC Court’s recent decision, in order to focus its resources on the ongoing litigation in DC and on ensuring that NMFS issues a new rule that both protects the North Atlantic right whale and ensures the sustainability of Maine’s lobster fishery,” Frawley said in an email to NEWS CENTER Maine.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

MAINE: Rep. Golden asks for more lobstermen on panel

March 24, 2022 — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) March 16 to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team by including members of Maine Lobstering Union Local 207.

The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team is charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale mortalities. Only four of the members of the 60-person team are Maine lobstermen.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

MAINE: DMR sets public hearing on whale rule changes

March 3, 2022 — Now that new federal regulations are in place to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from entanglement with fishing lines, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has drafted revisions to state lobster and crab fishing laws to implement the changes.

For Chapter 75, Protected Resources Compliance with Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, the proposed changes align with gear marking, fishing ropes, weak links in fishing rope, the minimum number of traps per trawl and the seasonal closure of Lobster Management Area 1. For Chapter 25, Lobster and Crab Fishing, proposed changes to Zone B increase the trawl limit from a maximum of three traps per line to five traps from 3 to 12 nautical miles from shore.

A remote public hearing is scheduled for March 15 at 5 p.m. for Chapter 75 and 5:30 p.m. for Chapter 25.

“These changes are routine in nature to implement such a large federal mandate,” Maine Lobstering Union member and Deer Isle lobsterman Virginia Olsen said. “However, we, the MLU, do not feel the goal of a 98 percent reduction is a way the Maine lobster industry can survive moving forward. We feel more real-time science needs to be done and the restrictions put in place to date need to be reviewed for effectiveness before additional restrictions are implemented.”

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

Committee rejects proposal for Maine lobster industry legal defense fund

February 23, 2022 — A Maine legislative committee largely rejected a bill Tuesday that would have created a legal defense fund to help the lobster industry fight recent and expected regulations designed to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

A bipartisan majority of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee members, despite expressing support for the bill’s intent, voted 9-4 “ought not to pass” after regulators, industry members and the state Attorney General’s Office said the bill could have unintended consequences and might be unconstitutional.

The industry would pay for the legal defense fund through surcharges on lobster trap tags and licenses. The surcharges would generate an estimated $900,000 a year for the legal fund, but would divert money away from other industry causes.

The money would be split three ways among the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Maine Lobstering Union and Maine Department of Marine Resources. The two industry groups would be reimbursed for any legal expenses incurred, and the state agency for added staffing expenses and any related legal action or research.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Maine lawmakers asked to create $30M emergency fund to aid fishermen

February 3, 2022 — Maine lobstermen can resume setting their traps in a roughly 960-square-mile area of ocean that’s been off-limits to them for the past two months.

That closure was part of new rules from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ordered to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Fishermen in that offshore area were told to remove their traps by late October, but the Maine Lobstering Union challenged the requirement in court and won a restraining order. However, just a few weeks later, a federal appeals court overturned that ruling and reinstated the closure, which finally began at the end of November.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association estimated last year that nearly 200 fishermen normally work that area during the months it would be closed.

Tuesday marked the end of the closure and fishermen can now return to those waters. However, the MLA said the closure has cost those fishermen money, as they had to spend time relocating traps instead of fishing, which may have reduced catches.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

After Supreme Court rejects appeal, lobstering union vows to continue fight

December 7, 2021 — The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a request by the Maine Lobstering Union and others to end a closure of lobstering waters off the state’s coast.

The union, Damon Family Lobster Co. Inc., Fox Island Lobster Co. LLC and Frank Thompson had filed an emergency injunction application on Wednesday with the court, seeking to halt enforcement of an earlier ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

That decision had stayed one by the U.S. District Court for Maine to stop a new four-month closure of 967 square miles of the Gulf of Maine to lobster fishing.

The developments all stem from a plan, issued by the Fisheries Service on Aug. 31, that aims to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale by creating new requirements affecting Maine lobstermen. In addition to the October-through-January ban on lobster fishing with buoy lines, implemented for the first time this year, the plan includes mandates for additional gear marking and gear modification.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

 

Supreme Court keeps limits on lobster fishing in Maine to protect rare right whales

December 6, 2021 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday against Maine lobster fishermen who sought to block new fishing restrictions that are designed to protect rare whales.

The new rules make an approximately 950-square-mile area of the Gulf of Maine essentially off limits to lobster fishing from October to January. That’s to protect North Atlantic right whales, which are one of the rarest whales and number less than 340.

Members of Maine’s lobster fishing industry asked the high court to block the new restrictions after an appeals court ruled that the closure was legal. Justice Stephen Breyer rejected the appeal on Friday without comment, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said.

The Maine Lobstering Union and others have argued that the restrictions will hurt the fishing industry economically. The restrictions are intended to protect the whales from lethal entanglement in fishing gear. That’s one of the biggest threats to their existence.

Read the full story from the AP at the Boston Globe

Lobstering union petitions U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Gulf of Maine closure

December 3, 2021 — Lobster harvesters were forced to remove their gear from a large section of the Gulf of Maine this week. Though their traps may no longer be in the water, the industry is not giving up its fight.

The Maine Lobstering Union filed an emergency application last week asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a lower court ruling and reopen the roughly 950-square-mile area, which is slated to be closed through January – and every subsequent October through January – in an effort to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

It’s the most recent development in a monthslong legal battle between members of the lobster industry, who say their livelihoods are at risk, and conservationists, who say the whales are headed for extinction.

Virginia Olsen, a lobsterwoman and a member of the union, said the group looks forward to continuing what it considers a fight to save the industry, and the families and communities that depend on it.

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

Recent Headlines

  • Trump bid to shrink monuments could prompt big legal battle
  • Local, regional groups sue to halt Empire Wind project
  • WPRFC approves mandatory electronic monitoring of longline vessels
  • Trump Withdraws From Agreement With Tribes to Protect Salmon
  • Opponents seek injunction to halt Empire Wind
  • Fishing Group Renews Effort to Stop Empire Wind
  • Charter company that helped extend Atlantic red snapper season says fight not over yet
  • How the Partners of Commercial Fishermen Started a Women’s Movement in the Commercial Fishing Industry

Most Popular Topics

Alaska Aquaculture ASMFC Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission BOEM California China Climate change Coronavirus COVID-19 Donald Trump groundfish Gulf of Maine Gulf of Mexico Hawaii Illegal fishing IUU fishing Lobster Maine Massachusetts Mid-Atlantic National Marine Fisheries Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NEFMC New Bedford New England New England Fishery Management Council New Jersey New York NMFS NOAA NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic right whales North Carolina North Pacific offshore energy Offshore wind Pacific right whales Salmon South Atlantic Western Pacific Whales wind energy Wind Farms

Daily Updates & Alerts

Enter your email address to receive daily updates and alerts:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Tweets by @savingseafood

Copyright © 2025 Saving Seafood · WordPress Web Design by Jessee Productions