THE COASTAL PACKET: Lobster industry threatened by loss of white whales

Saturday, March 24

Lobster industry threatened by loss of white whales

NPR -The endangered North Atlantic right whale population took a big hit last year with a record number of animals killed by fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes. Now, an ongoing debate over threats posed by Maine's lobster industry is gaining new urgency as scientists estimate these whales could become extinct in just 20 years.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Mark Baumgartner says that to help the whales survive, the rope Maine lobstermen use to mark their traps with buoys and haul up their catch must be modified or even eliminated. And it's not just for the whales' sake.

"I feel the industry is in jeopardy," Baumgartner says. Researchers Haven't Found A Single Endangered Right Whale Calf Yet This Season National Researchers Haven't Found A Single Endangered Right Whale Calf Yet This Season

Baumgartner was in Maine this month for a Lobstermen's Association meeting to detail the whales' plight. If the lobster industry doesn't respond effectively, he says, the federal government will step in. "As the population continues to decline and pressure is put on the government to do something about it, then they're going to turn to closures, because that's all they'll have," he says. And that could mean barring traps in the same waterways the lobster fishermen count on for their livelihoods.

There were about 450 North Atlantic right whales estimated to be alive in 2016. Only five calves were born last year, while there were 17 deaths caused by rope and gear entanglement or ship strikes. Baumgartner says with no new births and another death already this year, the trend line is tipping toward the whale's effective extinction within 20 years.

But, his warnings are getting a somewhat frosty reception from Maine lobstermen, who feel they're being singled out for a problem that crosses state and even national boundaries.

"There was a lot of deaths on the right whales this year, but none in the Gulf of Maine," says Bob Williams, who has been hauling traps off Stonington, Maine, for more than 60 years.

None of the dead whales were found near Maine's coast. But three were found off Cape Cod, which is part of the Gulf of Maine — where Baumgartner uses passive recording devices to help track their movements.

Parts of Massachusetts' already diminished lobster fishery in recent years has been closed during the height of the right whales' migration.

Williams, the lobsterman from Maine, says the industry here has stepped up, too, adopting expensive gear required by regulators. Now scientists are proposing new modifications, such as weaker ropes or even rope-less technology that relies on radio signals to locate traps. But Williams says those are likely unworkable off Maine. Whales, Sea Turtles, Seals: The Unintended Catch Of Abandoned Fishing Gear The Salt Whales, Sea Turtles, Seals: The Unintended Catch Of Abandoned Fishing Gear

"Because we have heavy tides and all that, and the farther east you go down towards eastern Maine, [there are] extreme tides down there," he says. Lobster trappers need to use ropes there, but the whales get tangled in ropes and lobster buoys, slowing them down and forcing them to burn more calories just to swim.

Many fingers in Maine are pointing the blame at Canada.

"Canada needs to step up," says Patrick Kelliher, commissioner of Maine's Department of Marine Resources.

He says that while the Gulf of Maine is a known part of the whales' territory, their paths lie mostly far off Maine's coast. Meanwhile, Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence has suddenly become a killing ground. "With what's going on in the Gulf of St. Lawrence right now with the Canadian crab fishery, that's where most of that gear is. If you looked at the diameter of that rope, that's not Maine fishing gear," he says. Maine's lobster gear is lighter and thinner than the gear designed to catch snow crab.

In fact, most of the whales found dead last year did turn up in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence, rather than U.S. waters.

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