Opinion: Right whales can’t wait 7 more years for lobstermen to make changes to protect them

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 8, 2026

There are only about 380 North Atlantic right whales alive now. They’re slow to reproduce and one of the biggest threats to their survival is getting entangled in fishing gear. A pause on new protections is set to expire in 2028. Rep. Jared Golden’s Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act would push the current moratorium on new right whale protections from 2028 to 2035. Congress set a six-year limit on this pause in 2022. This bill would make it last 13 years. Right whales cannot simply wait another seven years. A federal court already ruled that fishery limits have to stand to comply with the Endangered Species Act. We need a version of this bill that includes funding for gear that doesn’t kill whales and a public accounting of what’s already been spent buying “more time.” ~ Cindy Lowry, Maine-based environmental advocate with the International Marine Mammal Project