BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 7, 2020
A group of state researchers in Boothbay Harbor are testing how much force it takes to snap hundreds of pieces of rope apart as they try to identify knot combinations and configurations of fishing line that will help protect whales from life-threatening entanglements. Since early 2019, the small group of scientists at the Maine Department of Marine Resources have been testing a variety of different types of rope knotted together by putting them under strain with an old hydraulic tensile testing machine. The idea is to come up with a way Maine lobstermen can affordably satisfy federal laws that prohibit fishing activity from harming protected marine species such as North Atlantic right whales, of which only 400 or so remain.