WASHINGTON POST • December 20, 2022
Lawmakers from Maine have inserted a provision in a massive government funding bill to buffer lobstermen from new regulations, but environmental groups warn it could push the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales to the brink of extinction. The provision could sharply curtail the federal government’s ability to prevent right whales from getting entangled in fishing lines used to catch lobsters, environmentalists say. Maine lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — including Republican Sen. Susan Collins, independent Sen. Angus King and Democratic Rep. Jared Golden — counter that the state’s thousands of licensed lobstermen do everything required under the law to reduce the risk of harming right whales.