BANGOR DAILY NEWS • September 1, 2021
Federal fisheries regulators on Tuesday announced new rules for the northeast lobster industry. The rules, which are aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales, are more stringent and extensive than lobstermen and state officials had expected. The timing of the new restrictions — which include a large area that will be closed to lobster harvesting during the height of the season — is especially problematic. To add to the frustration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration moved ahead with the new rules without essential information about whale deaths that lobstermen, the governor and the state’s congressional delegation have requested for years. As we wrote in March, “it is premature to put so many stringent new requirements on Maine’s lobster fishermen.”