ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 13, 2022
A federal circuit court has reinstated a ban on lobster fishing gear in a nearly 1,000-square-mile area off New England to try to protect endangered whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service issued new regulations last year that prohibited lobster fishing with vertical buoy lines in part of the fall and winter in the area, which is in federal waters off Maine’s coast. The ruling was intended to prevent North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340, from becoming entangled in the lines. Gov. Janet Mills, along with U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, blasted the decision, saying Wednesday that the court “unfairly” targeted Maine’s lobster industry.