Federal plan to save right whales has Gov. Mills concerned about Maine’s lobster industry

(The Center Square) – Gov. Janet Mills has “grave concerns” about a federal plan to save the North Atlantic right whale from extinction, citing its impact on Maine’s lucrative lobster industry.

In a letter to Michael Pentony, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional fisheries manager, Mills said she proposed rules aimed at reducing whale entanglement in fishing gear would “necessitate the complete reinvention of the Maine lobster fishery as we know it.”

“The state of Maine is adamant that our federal government must take aggressive action to remedy the inequities of this framework in the years ahead,” Mills wrote.

NOAA is drafting new rules to reduce the possibility of entanglement of right whales in “vertical” line fishing gear such as lobster traps. The rules are set to be finalized on May 31.

Mills’ comments were accompanied by a detailed analysis of NOAA’s plan, pointing out flaws in the research and the federal agency’s assumptions about the impact of vertical gear.

Commercial fishermen say restrictions on the gear would doom an industry that’s already struggling to survive amid stringent regulation and closures of fishing areas.

In the past decade, federal and state commercial fishing regulators have required lobstermen to change their gear and reduce the number of trap lines.

Driven to the brink of extinction in the 20th century by whalers, the iconic North Atlantic right whales are more recently at risk from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.

The current population of right whales was estimated at only 360 worldwide, according to federal data.

But the species has also been hindered by poor reproduction and several years of high mortality, scientists say, with fewer than 100 breeding females remaining.

Maine’s lobstering industry is the largest in the U.S., generating an estimated $1 billion a year in economic impact for the state, according to the Mills administration.

In 2019, the state pulled out of a regional agreement to protect right whales that would have required Maine lobstermen to remove roughly 50% of the trap lines from the water.

In her letter, Mills called on NOAA regulators to come up with a better plan to protect the endangered species, without imperiling the state’s storied fishing industry.

“The survival of Maine’s iconic lobster fishery, and in fact, our heritage, through the future of Maine’s independent lobstermen and women, depend on your willingness to act,” she wrote

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