Lobster Traps Piled High on Union Wharf – Just Sold to GMRI.

“Maine Lobstermen’s Association (“MLA”) is extremely disappointed with the Appeals Court ruing.  The massive closure will create economic hardship for too many Maine lobstermen who have already invested in gear, rigged up and are fishing in these productive waters.  MLA believes there are significant flaws in NMFS’s decision that are not supported by science and over-reach its discretion to manage the fishery.  The Appeals Court was not presented with full information about those flaws and its ruing does not addess them.  That is why MLA is suing against NMFS’s 10-year whale plan which would effectively eliminate Maine’s lobster fishery and will not save right whales.

The foregoing statement from MLA refers to a federal appeals court decision last night to reinstate a ban on the lobster fishing in almost 1,000 sq. ft. on the downeast coast above Portland in the Gulf of Maine.  The intent of the ban is to protect the North Atlantic right whale population that continues to decline with each passing year.  One report is that as of 2020, the population of right whales is down to 336.

“It’s very disappointing to hear the Judge’s decsion.  These lobsterman have for decades been putting their livelihoods and businesses at risk for conservation efforts that they have implemented themselves.  Almost every conservation law that is in effect today started in the State of Maine and was implemented by the lobstermen themselves,” said Rachel Fecteau, manager of Lucky Catch Cruises, a tourist boat that became well-known because its passengers catch their own lobsters.  She said that Maine implemented the first “slotted” fishing on the east coast.  She said that the new rules would put lobsterman lives in danger because they are required to put more traps on the trawl line.  For small boat crews, that could be dangerous.  (Trawl lines are the lines that connect buoy to buoy on the bottom of the Gulf – on which the lobster traps are set). “Lucky Catch Cruises” had a “super busy” summer season this year acording to Fecteau who has been its manager for the past six years.

Lobsterman Bill MacIntosh said:  “It’s a horrible decision.”