CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY • July 12, 2022
In a victory for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a seasonal prohibition on lobster fishing using vertical lines in federal waters off the Maine coast. The decision reversed a preliminary injunction by the District of Maine that halted the NOAA Fisheries’ implementation of a 967-square-mile seasonal closure to static lobster lines in federal waters off Maine from October to January each year, when right whales are at risk of entanglement in dense aggregations of heavy, dangerous lobster gear. “This is a lifesaving decision for these beautiful, vulnerable whales,” said Kristen Monsell, oceans legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, who argued the case before the appellate court. “We’re in an extinction crisis, and we know how to prevent right whale deaths. This dwindling species needs more protection from deadly entanglements in lobster gear, and it needs them now.”