PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • February 22, 2022
A Maine legislative committee largely rejected a bill Tuesday that would have created a legal defense fund to help the lobster industry fight recent and expected regulations designed to help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales. A bipartisan majority of the Legislature’s Marine Resources Committee members, despite expressing support for the bill’s intent, voted 9-4 “ought not to pass” after regulators, industry members and the state Attorney General’s Office said the bill could have unintended consequences and might be unconstitutional. The push for legal assistance comes in advance of new federal rules that will require lobstermen in the Gulf of Maine to adopt special equipment and techniques to reduce mortality risk to the critically endangered right whale. Gov. Janet Mills already allocated $250,000 toward the industry’s legal fees in the fall, and another $980,000 has been approved in the supplemental budget.