ELLSWORTH – Sinking rope, breakaway lines and seasonal restrictions on fishing are all being considered in a federal plan for protecting whales – particularly federally endangered right whales – off Maine’s coast.

Local lobstermen Monday packed a meeting room at the Holiday Inn to express their frustration with the proposals, new requirements that fishing organizations have predicted could cost New England’s industry millions annually.

The Northern Atlantic right whale is among the most endangered animals in the world, with fewer than 350 believed to remain in the wild. The species’ population was decimated by whalers in the 18th century and has never recovered, according to experts.

Despite good news, such as the New England Aquarium’s announcement this week of a successful calving season, with a “near-record” 27 baby whales that weigh 3,000 pounds each born since December, the species faces real danger of extinction.

Despite federally mandated precaution, collisions with ships kill right whales every year during their migration up and down the Atlantic coast. And while mortality numbers are uncertain, 60 percent of Northern Atlantic right whales bear scars from entanglement in fishing lines or nets, according to researchers.

But fishermen argued Monday that no whale has ever been found dead, entangled in Maine lobster gear.

“In 35 years of fishing, I’ve never seen one,” said Jack Merrill, a lobsterman from Cranberry Isles. “If the Maine lobster fishery had never existed, would the right whales have noticed a difference? I don’t think so.”

Lobstermen cited cruise ships, whale watching tours, pollution, sonar and Canadian fishermen as other factors that they don’t believe federal regulators are addressing.

“Why won’t you attack the real problems? You know as well as I do about the ships – the cruise ships, the tankers, the whale watchers. … Those boats are tearing back and forth. Who’s to say those boats aren’t driving whales into the gear?” asked Spencer Joyce, a lobsterman from Swans Island.

Six different proposals were presented by federal fisheries regulators Monday night, each offering a unique combination of strategies to reduce whale entanglement in fishing lines. But five of the six options, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s preferred alternative, require at least a partial ban on the use of floating rope between traps by 2008.

One after another, fishermen took the floor Monday to tell NOAA that float rope, or “poly,” is necessary in Eastern Maine because the rocky seafloor snags sinking rope when it’s stretched between traps on the bottom, endangering fishermen and resulting in thousands of dollars worth of abandoned traps, buoys and ropes known as “ghost gear.”

The only alternative available to fishermen would be to fish single traps, which aren’t linked together underwater, thus increasing the number of ropes suspended vertically in the water – one of the worse possible scenarios for the whales, fishermen said.

In recent years, scientists have used a robotic camera to look underwater at these “ground lines” between traps off Maine’s coast and saw that most floated no higher than 2 or 3 feet off the bottom – too low to catch a whale, said Joyce, who participated in the research.

“We fish differently here in eastern Maine. Our habitat is different,” said Jon Carter of Bar Harbor, who serves as chairman for the Zone B lobster council.

“Asking lobstermen to fish without poly is the equivalent of asking people to drive cars without wheels,” Merrill added.

Maine fishermen have gone out of their way and spent hard-earned money to install breakaway devices on their gear and to comply with other existing rules, so they can’t afford to shift to floating rope, Carter said, asking NOAA to give ongoing efforts a chance to work before forcing more stringent rules.

“None of us here want to kill a whale, but we have to be able to fish,” Carter continued.

The complete proposals can be found online at www.nero.noaa.gov/whatetrp. Additional public hearings are scheduled for 6 -9 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, at the Samoset Resort in Rockport; 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, at Washington Academy in Machias; and 6-9 p.m. Thursday, April 7, at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland. Written comments on the proposed rules will be accepted through May 16. Comments should be labeled ATTN: ALWTRP DEIS and mailed to Mary Colligan, assistant regional administrator for Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Region, 1 Blackburn Drive, Gloucester MA 01930, faxed to (978) 281-9394, or e-mailed to whaledeiscomments@noaa.gov.