PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 7, 2021
Federal officials recently released plans to all but eliminate risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, but Maine lobster industry leaders fear the plan will only shift the risk of the extinction from the whales to the lobstermen. Maine Department of Marine Resources officials said it means only one thing – “a complete reinvention of the fishery as we know it.” The first phase includes plans to reduce the number of vertical lines, introducing weak insertions or weak rope into buoy lines, and adding additional seasonal restricted areas that are closed to buoy lines but allow ropeless fishing, among others. The plan does not include measures to help prevent ship strikes or reduce mortality and serious injuries in Canadian waters, which account for the majority of right whale deaths. Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said by the final phase, “I don’t see how we would even have a fishery.”