Study calls for cuts in U.S. lobster fishing (Gulf of Maine Right Whales)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/070109whales.html

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - American lobstermen who work in the Gulf of Maine should set fewer traps and shorten their season to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, says a new report that compares the Canadian and U.S. fisheries.

The report, published in today's edition of the journal Current Biology, says the changes would reduce the number of whales that get entangled in fishing gear without having much effect on the multimillion-dollar U.S. lobster industry.

Boris Worm, a Halifax-based biologist and one of the study's authors, notes that Canadian lobstermen working the gulf use far fewer traps during a shorter fishing season but still manage to catch a comparably large number of lobsters.

While the recommendations were greeted with skepticism by the head of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, Worm insists that U.S. fishermen would benefit from the restrictions.

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[mainegreen]

1. the report says the American fishing effort has left the fishery "severely overexploited."?!?!

Bullshit. The Maine lobster industry is one of the best self regulated and self policed fisheries in the world. There is no indication of *any* depletion of lobsters. In fact (due to a variety of reasons) the opposite is apparently true. Perhaps they have a case for reduction in number of traps to protect whales, but misrepresenting lobster population data will not win any converts to this cause.

:eyes:

[soothsayer]

2. I've heard the same as you!

[jpak]

3. "self policed" is an understatement

:D