MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • May 7, 2023
The lobster industry has less than six years to come up with a method that doesn’t rely on ropes dangling in the ocean, the traditional way to haul traps from the seabed. The ropes can also entangle whales, creating a potentially deadly hazard that fishery regulators have tried to mitigate. On Jan. 1, 2029, regulators can begin writing new whale-protection rules that could change the lobster fishery forever. Lobstermen, who say they’ve already done enough, fear they’ll face sweeping closures of waters they fish and a mandate to cut their ropes. It would mean the complete reinvention of the lobster fishery as it exists today.