MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • October 24, 2021
A federal judge in Maine last weekend blocked a seasonal closure to traditional lobstering in part of the Gulf of Maine on grounds that the science used to justify the closure was flimsy at best. But scientists argue that the opposite is true, and federal officials have suggested that the judge’s ruling might not be the win for Maine’s lobster fishery that industry members think it is. The hotly contested closure, which was slated to go into effect last Monday, would have banned traditional lobster fishing in a lucrative, 967-square-mile stretch of the Gulf of Maine for three months out of the year in an attempt to save the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from extinction.