A major seafood organization announced Wednesday it will no longer recognize lobsters caught in the Gulf of Maine as sustainable, dealing a blow to lobstermen who have been fighting for the protection of the North Atlantic right whale.
A major seafood organization stopped certifying Maine lobsters as sustainable.
MRAG Americas, Inc., a consulting organization that promotes sustainable fishing, has stopped certifying Maine lobsters through the Marine Services Council.
Maine lobsters can no longer be sold with a blue label sustainable due to an announcement from seafood watch against buying lobsters from American or Canadian waters.
Lobstermen and environmental groups have been locked in a fierce debate over lobstering regulations for over a decade, as ecological groups warn near-shore vertical fishing lines that connect lobster traps on the seafloor to buoys on the surface can snag whales.
New rules for catching lobsters that limit the number of fishing lines in the right whales' habitat, require knots in those lines that can break free when a whale is entangled and implement two seasonal fishing ground closed when the whales migrate to northern waters were introduced by the National Marine Fisheries Service last year Following previous rounds of federal rules that have been criticized by environmental groups as toothless, it is the latest attempt to protect right whales. A judge in Washington D.C. ruled in July that the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated federal law by failing to protect the right whales. The Maine Lobstermen's Association said it was more important than ever to have the financial resources to continue the fight. According to the Boston Globe, the Maine Lobstermen's Association challenged the goal of reducing the harm to right whales by 98%. Lawmakers in New England have differing opinions on the recent regulations targeting the lobstering industry.
The 18th and 19th century whalers used to call right whales the "right whale to hunt" because they were so abundant. Their numbers plummeted due to being overfished throughout the 1900s, but they slowly started to rebound over the next two decades. Their numbers have gone down over the years. Low birth rates have been a concern for scientists. According to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, fifteen calves have been born so far this year, less than the eighteen that were born last year and less than half the 24 that were born each year in the early 2000s.
Ropeless gear is a compromise to maintain the lobstering industry and protect right whales. lobstermen can use a mobile app to inflate the un-inflated buoys next to their traps, which will allow them to haul in their traps even if they don't have an inflated buoy. Approximately 85% of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at some point, according to scientists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Efforts to disentangle whales from fishing gear have proved to be difficult and at times fatal.
There was a huge sum of money. According to data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the most profitable year in the state's history was last year.
Scientists are worried about the population of North Atlantic right whales.
There are new regulations to protect right whales.
The federal court ruled that the officials didn't do enough to protect the whales.
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