Maine will have a say in lobstermen’s lawsuit to stop new federal rules

File photo / Laurie Schreiber The lobster industry is suing the federal government over a new set of regulations affecting fishing practices.

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By Staff

The Maine Department of Marine Resources will have a say in a lobster industry lawsuit against the federal government, Gov. Janet Mills announced last week.

The department was granted intervenor status in the suit, filed in September by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of Commerce in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit challenges the federal government’s 10‐year whale protection plan.

Designation as an intervenor allows third parties to enter litigation in which they are likely to be affected by a court’s judgment.

The federal whale protection plan, issued Aug. 31, creates new requirements affecting Maine lobstermen, including mandates for additional gear marking and gear modification. There's also a seasonal fishing ban across a large swath of offshore waters in the Gulf of Maine.

The plan aims to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

But the lobstermen’s association said the plan is based on flawed data, was therefore enacted arbitrarily and also fails to account for the positive impact of conservation measures already adopted by the Maine lobster fishery. The association said the plan will all but eliminate the Maine lobster fishery, and still fail to save the whales.

The Mills administration called the federal government’s plan “burdensome.”

“There’s never been a known right whale mortality associated with the Maine lobster fishery, and there have been zero known right whale entanglements associated with Maine lobster gear in almost two decades,” Mills said in a news release. “Despite these facts and regardless of our lobster industry’s proven commitment to conservation, the National Marine Fisheries Service has pushed forward with regulations that will be devastating to our lobster industry and to our way of life.”

Mills said that Maine cares about protecting the endangered right whale, “but the federal government’s regulations must be based in sound science and should account for conservation measures already taken by our fishery.”

Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher said the Maine lobster fishery has adopted strong conservation measures to protect right whales over the course of decades.

“The result of this longstanding commitment should not be ignored by federal regulators,” Keliher said. “The Maine lobster fishery has proven its commitment to conservation, but these new standards threaten its future and jeopardize a cornerstone of our state’s economy.”

Mills has also opposed the fisheries service’s seasonal closure of a part of Maine’s lobster fishery.

In November, the lobstermen’s association launched a three-year, $10 million fundraising campaign to fight the regulations.