Maine lobstermen hard hit by revised right whale rules

BOSTON – The beleaguered North Atlantic right whale gets new protections from fatal fishing line entanglements under proposed rules released last week, but it’s going to cost fishermen.

New whale-safe gear requirements, including a switch to rope that sinks to the ocean floor so whales don’t get snared in it, could cost East Coast fishermen an estimated $14 million annually, according to a federal document.

Lobstermen, particularly in Maine, would absorb the vast majority of the cost.

The proposal to amend the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan also predicts that under proposed rules favored by the federal government, which makes the final decisions on the law, some fishermen would “face costs significant enough to drive them out of business.”

The rules won’t be enacted for several months, after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration considers public comments and submits final regulations.

Pat White, chief executive officer of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said he hopes funding is available for lobstermen forced to switch gear, much of which is already used in different sectors of the industry.

“No one wants to see the whales all gone, but no one wants to see us all gone either,” White said.

The changes would do away with a widely despised system, called Dynamic Area Management, which forces lobstermen to pull unsafe gear from areas where right whales are spotted.

Fishermen have complained the system is too unpredictable and regulators have questioned its effectiveness.

“It’s not working as well for us, the whales, or the fishermen,” said Mary Colligan, NOAA’s assistant regional administrator of Protected Resources.

The proposed rules come after years of research and debate between fishermen, regulators and environmentalists about how best to protect the North Atlantic right whale, which has a total population of about 300 to 350.

The draft document includes two separate slates of rules that NOAA said it favors. Both include the new gear requirements, as well as expanding whale-safe rules to other industries that present similar entanglement threats with fixed nets or traps and pots, such as the shrimp and scup fisheries.

The lobster industry bears about $12.8 million of the estimated $14.2 million it would cost annually to comply with the changes, according to the document.

About 3,700 boats would be affected by the new rules. Of 212 vessels projected to be “heavily affected,” meaning annual costs to comply are more than 15 percent of revenues, 56 percent – or 122 – are lobster boats from Maine, by far the East Coast’s leader in annual lobster revenues with about $202 million in 2003.

The annual cost per boat to comply with the new rules is estimated between $2,500 and $3,500 for fishermen who stay near the coastline and about $10,200 for offshore fishermen.

Bonnie Spinnazola of the Atlantic Offshore Fishermen’s Association said it would cost some offshore lobstermen $90,000 to switch to new gear. If fishermen aren’t given at least four years from when the rule takes effect, many simply won’t make the switch in time, she said.

In the past four months, four right whales have been found dead, a devastating loss for the small population. Three died from unknown causes and one from a ship strike, believed to be a greater human cause of whale deaths than fishing line.

There’s little evidence about the specific fishing practices or gear that lead to entanglements. But that’s no excuse not to act, Colligan said.

“The species can’t wait until we have perfect information,” she said.