MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • August 30, 2020
In June, President Trump announced that he was reversing a conservation initiative that banned fishing in an area off the East Coast, and that the lobster industry would be eligible for bailout funds related to his trade war with China. But the move to reintroduce fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument was largely symbolic, as no Mainer fishes there. And more than two months later, not one cent in aid has reached the industry, though it has been available to similar industries since 2018. The industry is also fighting proposals aimed at protecting endangered right whales they said would make their business more difficult, and dangerous. Climate change is both making lobsters more vulnerable to disease and moving them north. Maine’s lobster industry is going to need national attention.