Maine lawmakers consider bill to keep funding lobster legal defense

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 23, 2023

Maine’s lobster industry is asking the state to continue bankrolling its legal defense fund by diverting a cut of its licensing fees intended to market the state’s signature crustacean into its court battles to fight federal whale protections that threaten the fishery’s future. L.D. 710. It would give 20% of the industry’s license surcharges – about $380,000 a year – to the legal defense fund through 2030.