PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • June 16, 2022
A federal judge has sided with the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and on Friday ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service used “pessimistic assumptions” when it created new regulations to help save the North Atlantic right whale. U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg’s ruling vacates a biology-based opinion – the government’s 10-year plan to reduce the risk posed by fishing gear to the endangered whales. The decision also brings into question a set of highly contested rules that fishery officials have called burdensome, needless and even dangerous. It was not immediately clear on Friday how the ruling affects the current regulations.