Santa Claus Made a Special Delivery to Maine’s First District Becahse Mainers Have Been So Good This Past Year.

Santa Claus delivered to the First District of Maine big time and ahead of schedule –  Christmas Day.   He had so many gifts for Mainers who have been good this year, that he decided to make an extra trip just to Maine to deliver to the District in which Chellie Pingree (D) is the First District Representative to Congress..

Meanwhile, Congresswoman  Chellie PIngree (D) was celebrating the final passage of the funding bill for 2023 yesterday.

The bill includes $5 million to assist farmers whose land has been contaminated by PFAS or “forever chemicals.” Congresswoman Pingree also authorized provisions in the bill to increase the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to addres PFAS mitigation nationwide.

Support for Maine’s lobster fishing industry as previously outlined was approved.  The bill also provides an increase of $6 milliion from FY22 for right whale related research, monitoring, enforcement and conservation efforts.

“Most North American right whales migrate each year from Florida to Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence and back and historically they’ve spent summers and breeding seasons in and around the Gulf of Maine.  Given this range, it is rarely clear which regional fishery’s gear is responsible for mortality events.  Researchers have documented more than 1,700 instances of right whale entanglements between 1980 and 2019,” according to an in-depth article in the December 2022 issue of “Down East” magazine.  The article “How Did Gulf of Maine Lobster Get Canceled?” continues:  “Of these, they can trace fewer than 20 to a specific fishery – Nova Scotia crab, say or Maine lobster.  One reason why is that a whale’s injuries can last long after it sheds entangled gear – many instances of entanglement are documented only by visible scars. and it’s not uncommon for a whale to die of infection or starvation even after becoming disentangled.  Another reason is that until recently, most rope wasn’t marked to indicate its origin.  Not until 2015 did U.S. federal officials start requiring some fisheries to color-code their lines……….”