Help Save Lobstering

As printed originally by the Lincoln County News on October 11, posted with permission of the author.

To the editor:

As you may have heard or read, the Maine lobstering industry is being targeted by individuals and entities concerned about entanglements of right whales.

Here are the facts you should know, as spelled out by our coastal U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree in a major speech this month. Chellie represents coastal and island communities from Kittery to Camden.

In 1997, the Maine lobstering industry adopted practices to protect right whales. They worked. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the organization responsible for protecting our oceans and their habitat nationally. Now NOAA’s own data has shown that not one case of whale entanglement by lobstering lines has occurred in the last 20 years!

Yes, the right whale is in danger, but chiefly because of warming temperatures in Maine waters forcing them into Canadian waters, where they have increasingly died from ship strikes and entanglements there. Research by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has confirmed this.

Yet political forces are fraudulently trying to pin the blame on Maine lobstermen and women and damage their livelihoods by urging restaurants to ban Maine lobster on their menus. This is outrageous and these new, restrictive laws, forcing fishermen to shoulder the costs and blame could be disastrous all along our 3,478-mile coastline. Lobstering impacts almost every coastal town, and accounts for 6,000 jobs on the water. On Oct. 8 a federal district judge upheld the new restrictions. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is appealing the decision. Mainers need to speak up in defense of their position.

What would Maine be without lobster? It’s a major draw to tourists, on whom we are largely dependent. All sorts of coastal businesses would be impacted by even a drawdown in lobstering.

If you know a lobstering person or family, just love lobster on your plate, or want to protect the Maine way of life, vote to give Chellie Pingree another term. She’ll continue to fight for the industry and for all the people of Maine and its way of life.

Ruth Monsell
Damariscotta