Scientists blast Maine lobstermen’s whale safety stance

By Mary Ann Bragg
Posted Sep 23, 2019

Eighteen scientists who work in North Atlantic right whale research and rescue have said the Maine lobster industry is “significantly underestimating” the harm their equipment causes.

The scientists have called on the state of Maine to support the National Marine Fisheries Service in developing new rules to protect the whales from lobster gear injuries.

“Reducing entanglement in East Coast waters of the United States is a critical part of a comprehensive strategy for right whale survival and recovery,” Scott Kraus, chief scientist for marine mammals at New England Aquarium’s Anderson Center for Ocean Life, and Mark Baumgartner, associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and chairman of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, said in a letter Tuesday to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

In addition to Kraus and Baumgartner, other scientists at WHOI and the Anderson Center for Ocean Life in Boston signed the letter, as well as leaders from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has an operations center in Yarmouth Port.

The letter to Collins comes after the Maine Lobstermen’s Association announced Aug. 30 that the state’s five lobster industry representatives had withdrawn support for a key regional pact agreed to in April. The pact focuses on reducing vertical lines in the water and modifying trap and pot gear to better protect right whales from becoming ensnared in fishing rope. Each lobstering area agreed to area-specific goals.

The pact by Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and offshore commercial lobstermen — as well as other stakeholders such as scientists, conservationists and state regulators — came after a steady decline since 2010 in the right whale population, which now stands at about 400. The loss of 29 whales in the past three years in U.S. and Canadian waters is considered particularly critical, according to scientists and conservationists.

The documented death on Sept. 16 of a 40-year-old male right whale, known as Snake Eyes, reported 5 miles south off Long Island, was the first carcass reported this year in U.S. waters. Eight right whale carcasses have been documented this year in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. Snake Eyes was last seen alive Aug. 6 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with fishing rope wrapped through his mouth. His tail appeared to drag toward the bottom, meaning he may have been anchored to the ocean floor.

The Maine association said on Aug. 30 that substantive errors in the National Marine Fisheries Service data presented in April and a last-minute focus on the Northeast lobster industry led to errors in assigning relative risks to all sources that have the potential to harm right whales. Ship strikes, gillnets and the Canadian snow crab fishery pose greater risks, according to the Maine association.

But in Tuesday’s letter, the scientists disagreed with the Maine association. Statements made by Maine officials “do not reflect the facts in hand and minimize or ignore the changes needed to prevent the North Atlantic right whale from going extinct,” the scientists said.

Right whales are common in Maine waters, the scientists said, and are likely significantly underestimated by fishermen and managers — because of the high density of zooplankton present and the lack of systematic whale population surveys in recent years. The high lobster trap counts, the current lax gear-marking scheme and problems with both recovering and identifying fishing gear of any kind combine to significantly underestimate numbers of entanglement events in Maine waters, the scientists said in the letter.

Maine lobstermen fish about 3 million traps, representing an estimated 87 percent of the U.S. Atlantic lobster fishery, but only a few entanglements have been tracked to Maine because it is extremely rare to identify the origin of gear to any fishery, according to the scientists. Additionally, 70 percent of Maine waters are exempt from regulations requiring fishing gear to be marked with country and state of original.

“It is not currently possible to determine if right whale entanglements originated in Maine,” the scientists said.

In summary, the scientists said, the number of right whales in Maine waters, the number of entanglements occurring there, and the severity of all entanglements and their effects on the right whale population “are all significantly underestimated.”

Sen. Collins’ office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Maine Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Patrice McCarron.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said that it will continue — despite the withdrawal of the Maine lobster industry — to prepare a draft environmental impact statement on the proposed gear changes in the Northeast, based on the April pact.

″(National Marine Fisheries Service)’s own data show that the lobster fishery is the least significant cause of right whale serious injury or mortality, while ship strikes, gillnets and the Canadian snow crab fishery pose much greater risks,” McCarron said in the Aug. 30 announcement.

The Maine association said its own analysis revealed the Canadian snow crab fishery accounts for 31% of right whale serious injury and mortality, gillnet and netting gear represent 13%, unknown trap/pot gear represents 4% and U.S. trap/pot gear represents 4%.

U.S. and Canadian vessel strikes account for the remaining 48%.