MAINE PUBLIC • October 16, 2020
Newly released documents by Maine’s Department of Resources are providing a glimpse of what federal action to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales could look like — including the closure of extensive areas of offshore ocean to lobstering in federal waters known as Lobster Conservation Management Areas. MDMR calculated that had such closures been in place last year, they would have blocked more than 3,000 boat trips and reduced the value of offshore landings by $14 million. That’s more than half the offshore fleet’s annual take and about 3% of last year’s total Maine lobster landings of $485 million.