PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 28, 2022
Recently 230 derelict junk lobster traps were collected on Outer Bar Island. Last summer I went to Seguin Island, off Popham Beach. There were five junk traps and multiple balls of nylon rope in less than the 58 feet of shoreline. Mainers lobstermen say, “Right whales don’t get caught in Maine lobster gear.” Yeah, right. A study of available photographs of right whales, taken from 1980 to 2009, found that 83 percent showed evidence of having been entangled in fishing gear at least once. Since 2017, 47 percent of all documented right whale deaths and serious injuries were from fishing gear entanglements. And we are expected to believe that with the ocean bottom covered in gear, the right whales are magically getting entangled only in Canadian gear. ~ Carl Wilcox, New Gloucester