Lobsterman on front line for whales

In response to the “Whales on the Line” editorial, I would like to set the record straight. First, we, as lobstermen, have done everything asked of us to protect right whales from knotless connections on our buoys to breakaways. We have tested countless new prototypes of line and new devices for the New England Aquarium and other organizations to see if someone could develop something that might help the whales and allow us to still work.

We also support the Gulf of Maine Foundation’s rope buyback program. The problem arises because a vast majority of lobstermen can not use sink rope because of the topography of the bottom where they fish. Once you go east of Casco Bay, the bottom becomes much more rocky and boulder strewn, thus making it impossible to use sink rope between traps.

Instead of using the one-size-fits-all approach, we advocate coming up with a plan that will help the whales and still enable people to make a living. All the data suggests that the whales transit from Cape Cod bay to the Bay of Fundy, roughly 30 miles to 50 miles offshore. We, as lobstermen, never see right whales within 20 miles of the coast. There have been fewer than 10 right whales sighted in the near shore waters of Maine in the last 25 years.

To ask every lobsterman to assume a $10,000 to $12,000 cost to switch to sink rope is not warranted by the science or the number of whales within 20 miles of the coast. It is believed that right whales get entangled while feeding, but no one has every witnessed an entanglement occur. Also the cocopods that right whales eat are not found in the near-shore rocky habitat in any abundant numbers. This would account for the very low number of right whales sighted along the coast of Maine.

We, as lobstermen, feel that we are being asked to fix a problem that does not exist. We believe that the protection of the right whales should occur where the whales congregate and it is not a secret where these places are.

Your editorial also erred on one more very important point. You said that only a few dozen lobstermen are being proactive in trading in their float rope, but the fact is that most of the people trading in their float rope come from Southern Maine, where they can get by fishing sink rope because of the nature of the bottom.

The reason that other lobstermen are not participating is because they have to have float rope to fish, not because they are not proactive. Also, there are roughly 5,500 licensed lobstermen in the state of Maine, not 72,000. Also, the whale regs would be in effect to the beach – not just in federal waters – so it would affect all 5,500 lobstermen, not just the 1,400 federal permit holders.

David Cousens of South Thomaston is president of the Maine Lobstermen Association.