Lobster fishing faces tighter scrutiny> Gear seen as danger to marine mammals

ROCKLAND — Concerned about increasing reports of whales getting tangled in lobster gear, the federal government is considering moving the East Coast lobster fishery to the highest level of scrutiny for its impact upon marine mammals.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, now ranks the Gulf of Maine/Mid-Atlantic lobster industry as a Category III fishery — one that rarely interacts with marine mammals, such as seals, porpoises and whales.

After studying 42 incidents occurring between 1990 and 1994 in which whales may have been injured or killed after becoming entangled in lobster gear, the service is proposing to upgrade the fishery’s ranking in 1997 to Category I — a fishery that produces a higher than acceptable level of injury and death to marine mammals, especially to endangered and protected species.

The service is required by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act to evaluate the ratings of all sectors of the American fishing industry annually.

Although the final impact of the higher rating won’t be known until well after the public comment period ends Oct. 15, those working in Category I fisheries may be required to register with federal authorities (and pay a $25 registration fee), to report all incidents of injury to marine mammals within 48 hours and to carry federal observers aboard if asked.

Of the 42 incidents studied, the service has ruled that 18 were caused by gear set by American lobstermen. The other 24 were written off when it could not be determined conclusively that the entanglement was by line from lobster gear or whether the entanglement occurred in American or Canadian waters.

The 18 incidents, from Maine to New Jersey, caused injury or death to 11 humpback whales, six minke whales and one northern right whale, the most endangered of all whale species.

According to Kim Townhurst of the service’s Habitat and Protected Species Division, the right whale case demonstrates the difficulty of pinning the blame on a specific fisherman.

“That whale was spotted over more than three months, dragging part of a lobster trawl over a huge area,” Townhurst said Wednesday. “It was first sighted in Massachusetts waters, then in the Bay of Fundy [Canada], and finally washed up dead in Rhode Island. There was no identification on the gear, no way of knowing where it started. With the high priority given to the protection of right whales, that one incident is enough to kick the classification up to Category I.”

Most of the minke whale incidents have occurred in Maine, Townhurst said.

For the purpose of protecting marine mammals, the service is planning to combine the inshore fishery, in state waters out to three miles, and the offshore federal fishery, which extends out to 200 miles, into one. The fisheries will be classified and regulated separately only if those commenting on the plan can propose a practical way to attribute gear to either inshore or offshore sources.

Townhurst said the service is looking for ways to reduce the new rating’s financial impact, paperwork load and aggravation on lobstermen. “We are looking for a way to be able to waive the $25 registration fee and to cut the administrative burden by making the federal registration part of the state licensing process all lobstermen deal with already.”

In a fishery with more than 14,000 boats scattered among thousands of small coves and harbors, Townhurst said the provision for having federal observers on board “is not one we expect will be given a high priority.”