Saving Seafood

Maine lobstermen have two weeks to pull traps from whale protection area

November 22, 2021 — Virginia Olsen called the situation “beyond frustrating”.

Olsen is a lobster fisherman from Stonington and the political director for the Maine Lobstering Union.

Earlier this week, union members and all the other lobstermen in Maine lost a big fight in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston when judges reinstated the federal government’s closure of a 967-square mile area of ocean off the Maine coast.

The closure, originally scheduled to be in effect from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, is part of a plan from NOAA Fisheries and the National Marine Fisheries Service to help protect endangered right whales from becoming tangled in lobster gear.

A federal judge in Bangor last month sided with the union’s arguments against the closure and imposed an injunction to stop it. The appeals court reversed that decision, and now the closure is in effect, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The Maine Lobstering Union and others in the fishing industry said there has been no hard evidence right whales are in that closure area. But federal regulators said there is evidence, including data obtained this year from underwater acoustic devices.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

Federal appeals court reinstates lobster gear restrictions off Maine’s coast

November 17, 2021 — A federal appeals court is reinstating restrictions on fishing gear in a nearly 1,000 square mile swath of ocean off Maine’s coast. It’s a blow to Maine’s lobstermen and a victory for advocates for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

In October, in an effort to protect the roughly 340 right whales remaining on the planet from potentially deadly entanglements with fishing gear, the federal government imposed a four-month restriction on the use of trap-rope in the area. Lobstermen consider the area prime winter fishing grounds, but the rope-ban would effectively bar 60 or more boats from fishing there. Before the restrictions took effect, the Maine Lobstering Union won a stay from a U.S. district judge in Bangor.

But late Tuesday, a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that the lower court overstepped its authority. The court said that while the stakes are high on both sides, Congress had “placed its thumb on the scales” for endangered species such as the right whales.

Read the full story at WBUR

Government, conservation groups file appeal to reinstate seasonal lobstering ban

November 1, 2021 — The federal government and a group of conservation organizations filed an appeal this week of a recent court decision that stopped a planned seasonal closure to traditional lobstering in an area of the Gulf of Maine.

The closure, which would have gone into effect Oct. 18, was intended to help protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and would have made traditional, rope-and-buoy lobstering off-limits in the lucrative 967-square-mile zone from October to January.

The Maine Lobstering Union, Fox Island Lobster Co. of Vinalhaven and Damon Family Lobster Co. of Stonington filed a joint lawsuit against the fisheries service last month in an effort to block the closure, arguing that regulators used flimsy science to justify the restricted area.

In his ruling, issued just two days before the closure would have been implemented, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker sided with the lobstering groups and said regulators had relied on “markedly thin” statistical modeling instead of hard evidence to prove the area they had planned to close was really a highly traveled area for the imperiled whale.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine lobstermen celebrate, conservationists criticize ruling on fishery closure

October 20, 2021 –Maine lobstermen will not have to stop fishing in an area slated to be off-limits from October through January.

A federal judge granted temporary relief to the Maine Lobstering Union Saturday.

The group sued in an effort to block the seasonal closure of the roughly 1,000-square-mile area.

Federal officials argued the closure is necessary to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.

“You’re not going to save a whale by closing down I-95 and we feel like that’s the same implication,” said Virginia Olsen of the Maine Lobstering Union.

The rules issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the National Marine Fisheries Service are part of a 10-year plan to reduce the risk of right whales getting tangled in lobster fishing ropes and dying.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in September to challenge the protections which, they argue, will “eliminate” the Maine lobster fishery.

Read the full story at WMUR

 

Maine Lobstering Union Lands Injunction to Halt Right Whale Lobster Fishing Area Closure

October 19, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) was granted emergency relief by U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker on October 16 to halt an impending closure of a lobster fishing area off Maine.

The closure was set to be implemented as part of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced at the end of August.

After learning of the closure, the MLU, along with other industry groups including the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), sued the NMFS over the right-whale related rule changes.

According to the MLU, the closure would have impacted a large area of “prime lobstering territory.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

Judge’s rejection of lobstering ban draws praise of industry, ire of environmentalists

October 18, 2021 — Lobster industry advocates and environmental groups offered starkly different reactions Sunday to a judge’s decision blocking a federal ban on lobstering in a section of the Gulf of Maine designed to protect the endangered right whale.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker, said federal regulators relied on “markedly thin” analysis that didn’t provide hard proof of the whales’ presence in the roughly thousand-square-mile area off the Maine coast. Advocates for the lobster industry had asked for a stay of the three-month ban, arguing there wasn’t evidence that the critically endangered whales actually frequent the area.

Environmental groups accused Walker of relying on his own analysis of data rather than that of scientists. Lobstering advocates, on the other hand, praised the judge for offering a lifeline to the $1.4 billion industry, which is critical to Maine’s economy.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at the Portland Press Herald

 

Maine Lobstering Union Files Suit for Emergency Relief Against NMFS

October 4, 2021 — The Maine Lobstering Union (MLU) became the latest from the lobster industry to file a federal lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) due to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Modifications announced on August 31.

The MLU filed a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, seeking emergency relief related to fishing ground closures that will come into effect due to the recent modifications. Fox Island Lobster Company of Vinalhaven and Frank Thompson, a sixth-generation fisherman, who together with his wife Jean, own and operate Fox Island; and the Damon Family Lobster Company of Stonington are also Plaintiffs on the case.

The Complaint names as Defendants the Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce, and the Assistant Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NMFS.

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

MAINE: Fishermen slow offshore wind farm development

July 26, 2021 — Actions by Maine fishermen directly affected the process of offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine with a bill signed into law on July 7 by Governor Janet Mills.

The measure was a response to plans that surfaced last year for a 16-square-mile, 12-turbine wind farm, called a “research array,” off the southern coast of Maine.

Proponents promised good jobs and cheap, green electricity. Fishermen weren’t so sure. They envisioned wind farms springing up throughout the Gulf of Maine, harming marine life and damaging coastal communities.

“We as fishermen work and take care of the water,” said Virginia Olsen, a Maine Lobstering Union director who lives in Stonington. “We feel these things will get dumped on the water and then someone will say, ‘Just leave them there, it’ll be a coral reef.’ But it will just be trash left for us.”

Fishermen scored a victory this legislative session with a measure that bans offshore wind turbines in state waters. Lawmakers also prevented the state from allowing wind farms in federal waters to link to the mainland.

But the new measure may only slow, not stop, the spread of wind farms. After three years, it permits wind farms in federal waters to link to the mainland if certain conditions are met.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

Mainers rally to oppose offshore wind development

April 30, 2021 — A gathering to oppose offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine brought nearly 500 Mainers to the state capital on Wednesday, April 28. The rally sought to centralize the concerns of Maine’s fishing communities and fishermen who believe they have been overlooked in the siting and development phases for offshore energy buildout on the Gulf of Maine.

At the gathering — organized by the Maine Lobstering Union (Local 207), with support from Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and in partnership with the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association and Maine Lobstermen’s Association — fishermen voiced concerns regarding the unknown impacts to ocean ecosystems, marine habitats, and the fisheries that have supported coastal communities for centuries.

“Maine lobstermen are stewards of the sea and partake in the most sustainable fishery in the world. Protecting it and its environment for centuries has been our goal,” said Matthew Gilley, a lobsterman from Harpswell, and one of the speakers at the event. “The state of Maine believes it’s a good idea to replace this way of life with unproven foreign-backed power plants in the Gulf of Maine, and we disagree.”

Before the rally, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced her intention to submit a bill to prohibit the siting of offshore wind within three miles of Maine’s coast for the next 10 years. Maine family fishing businesses and fishing industry organizations have pledged to push the state to provide a clear plan for offshore wind development, as well as a detailed plan outlining the potential of alternate green energy investment opportunities that will protect the Gulf of Maine, our natural resources, and Maine’s working citizens.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Maine lobstermen to federal regulators: We’re not killing whales

March 9, 2020 — Federal fishing regulators found themselves in the hot seat at this year’s annual Maine Fisherman’s Forum as the lobster industry sounded off about looming right whale rules that threaten to upend the country’s most valuable fishery.

Phillip Torrey, a sixth-generation lobsterman from Winter Harbor, told regulators it was unfair to ask Maine fishermen to give up any more than they already have to protect the endangered whale without proof that they are the ones causing them harm.

“If you could show us that we were killing right whales, we would do whatever you asked,” Torrey told regulators. “If it was a a court case, no district attorney in the world could put us to trial because they’d say they have no evidence against us, Maine fishermen.”

Torrey was one of more than 150 people who turned out to see the National Marine Fisheries Service field questions about its right whale policy, like why impose fishing restrictions on the $485 million-a-year lobster industry when data shows that it is Canadian fishermen and ships that are killing whales.

Fishing gear entanglement is the cause of most known right whale deaths or serious injuries, said Regional Administrator Michael Pentony. The agency is issuing draft regulations for the lobster industry this summer because it represents at least 90 percent of the gear in U.S. whale habitat, he said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald