Maine Lobsters Lose Sustainable Food Label Amid Environmental Battle To Protect Endangered Right Whale - Forbes

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Topline

A major seafood organization announced Wednesday it will no longer recognize lobsters caught in the Gulf of Maine as sustainable, dealing a major blow to lobstermen amid an ongoing environmental battle over the protection of the endangered North Atlantic right whale, whose numbers have been decimated in recent years largely from fishing line entanglement.

Key Facts

MRAG Americas, Inc., a consulting organization that promotes sustainable fishing, announced it has suspended its sustainability certification of Maine lobsters through the Marine Services Council, effective Dec. 15, according to an MSC press release.

Without the MSC certification, Maine lobster can no longer be sold with a recognizable blue sustainable label—the latest hit to the lobster industry, following an announcement from sustainability guide Seafood Watch against buying lobsters from American or Canadian waters, putting Maine lobsters on its red list of foods to avoid.

Lobstermen and environmental groups have been locked in a fierce debate over lobstering regulations for over a decade, as ecological groups warn near-shore vertical fishing lines that connect lobster traps on the seafloor to buoys on the surface can snag whales, making them a primary culprit in the devastating collapse of the right whale population.

As of October, scientists at the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimate their population has fallen to 340, bringing the species to the brink of extinction.

Key Background

The National Marine Fisheries Service last year introduced new rules for catching lobsters that limit the number of fishing lines in the right whales’ habitat, requiring knots in those lines that can break free when a whale is entangled and implementing two seasonal fishing ground closures when the whales migrate to northern waters. It’s the latest attempt at protecting right whales, following previous rounds of federal rules that have been criticized by environmental groups as toothless. In July, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington D.C. ruled a set of 2018 regulations from the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to protect the right whale population, and said the agency had violated the federal Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, ending a four-year legal battle. Following the ruling, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association issued a statement, saying “it’s more important than ever for MLA to have the financial resources to continue this battle.” The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has also challenged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s goal of reducing the harm to right whales by 98%, which the association said it would continue to pursue, the Boston Globe reported. Lawmakers in New England have been split on the recent regulations targeting the lobstering industry, with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) accusing Seafood Watch of “literally trying to put these people out of business” after the organization red-listed lobsters.

Surprising Fact

Right whales earned their name because they were once considered so abundant that they were known as the “right whale to hunt” and because they floated when they were killed, a convenience for 18th and 19th century whalers. Their numbers plummeted due to overfishing throughout the 1900s, dropping to 268 in 1990, WGBH reported, although they slowly started to rebound over the next two decades, to roughly 481 in 2011. Since then, however, their numbers have dropped each year. Scientists have also been concerned with low birth rates. Fifteen calves have been born so far this year, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, less than the 18 born last year and just over half the 24 that were born each year, on average, in the early 2000s.

Tangent

Some environmentalists have pointed to ropeless gear as a compromise to maintain the lobstering industry and protect right whales from entanglement. The gear functions as a system of uninflated buoys that can be placed beside lobster traps on the seafloor, which lobstermen can inflate using a mobile app, allowing the buoys to rise to the surface when they’re close by so lobstermen can haul in their trap—although it’s been criticized as expensive and ineffective. Scientists at NOAA Fisheries, however, estimate roughly 85% of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear at least once. While there have been efforts to disentangle whales from fishing gear, that work has proven to be painfully difficult and at times deadly.

Big Number

$724.9 million. That’s how much money Maine’s lobster fishery took in last year, a 75% increase from 2020 and the most profitable year in the state’s history, according to data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources.