The lobster industry is fighting back against potential tighter restrictions on fishing gear, saying its risk to whales has been overstated.Tension is building in Maine over efforts to save a shrinking whale species that scientists say is threatened by the ropes lobstermen use to haul traps from the ocean floor.
The complex battle involves a federal agency that has a mandate to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, a its fishing gear poses a risk, and environmental groups that say the federal government’s whale-protection efforts have fallen short.
The rhetoric being used to suggest that the whales are threatened by the Maine fishermen has no basis in science or reality. It is baseless noise that does nothing for whales and hurts hardworking Mainers.