BANGOR DAILY NEWS • December 22, 2022
A year of peril and political wrangling for the lobster industry is ending with a major breakthrough. Maine’s congressional delegation tucked a six-year pause on right-whale regulations and potentially hundreds of millions in funding for fishing gear and research on risk to whales into a spending bill set to pass this week. While it is only a pause and the omnibus spending bill is not final yet, it is already sharply shifting the political dialogue on the iconic fishery. the deal will not end all of the fighting over the industry. Any long-term solution to further rules may lie in amending the Marine Mammal Protection Act, one of the key laws that has led to the federal government advancing rules aimed at protecting whales even though no entanglements have been linked to Maine fishing gear for decades. Conservation groups opposed this deal and would work hard against that.