F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

How Do We Really Save the Whales?



A hundred years ago lobstermen fished seasonally and fished other species, farmed, built wooden traps, built boats, painted barns and in some cases all of the above in the off season.

While lobster fishing remains a great way to make a living in a great workplace, the modern world has brought changes. On the up side, for those who have learned how to catch lobster and manage the profits, as a small business it has become rewarding on many levels.

Operating costs, however, have risen well above the days of fishing on a lobster sloop. Along with increased landings and better boat prices have come regulations, fees, boat mortgages, restricted licensing, and bait shortages. Then there are looming threats from federal mandates on endlines.

The lawsuit filed against the National Marine Fisheries Service in 1999 has raised hard questions and uncertainties for the lobster industry. The same plaintiff made similar claims in a suit filed against the state of Massachusetts in June of 2018.

Today more lobstermen have more money invested in their businesses. A lot of it is borrowed. The proposed 50% cut in endlines could bring unforeseen changes and increased operating costs. More boats could be coming back inshore as longer trap trawls cause more expensive trawl entanglements offshore. Entanglements that can lead to cut lines and lost trawls. Doubling traps on an inshore endline won’t suddenly land double the lobster. Entanglements could also increase inshore from longer trawls.

This mandate is an unjust burden on lobstermen. Unjust because of sufficient evidence that lobster lines are currently a significant part of the cause of the decline of right whales. Without addressing the known larger compound causes of right and other whale population losses, the whales will continue to die.

Unless those who could deal with all the difficult known causes of whale deaths do so, then lobstermen, fishing communities, the coastal economy of Maine and the whales, could be getting a death sentence. If all known causes of the population decline were held responsible, then the suit would be more reasonable. Without that, it will be the plaintiff in the lawsuits, the conservation group fundraisers and a complacent public who are choosing an easy option over the right answer to a tough question. How do we really save the whales?