U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is proposing a way to help fishermen pay for federally mandated equipment modifications and safety improvements that the fishermen say will undercut their livelihoods.

Federal tax laws already permit fishermen to put portions of their pre-tax income toward capital boat costs such as buying new fishing vessels or rebuilding existing ones. Fisherman can put money for such costs in individually held capital construction funds, which are tax exempt, according to a prepared release sent out Wednesday by Snowe’s office.

A new bill submitted Wednesday by Snowe would expand the allowed uses for money fishermen put in these funds. Besides capital costs, fishermen also would be able to spend money out of these funds on safety improvements and on mandated fishing gear requirements that are intended to help prevent endangered whales from getting caught in fishing gear. In essence, the proposed Fisheries Capital Construction Fund Enhancement Act of 2008 would make these expenses also tax-exempt.

Snowe, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, has been a vocal critic of new regulations issued by National Marine Fisheries Service that, beginning in October, will require all lobstermen to stop using floating ground lines between traps, which helps keep it from getting snagged on the craggy ocean bottom. Instead, fishermen will have to use sinking ground lines, which are believed to sink to the ocean bottom out of the way of diving whales.

Whale advocates say that vertical ropes in the water column pose a tremendous threat to the survival of endangered whales. Only between 300 and 400 right whales remain in the North Atlantic, they say, and to lose even one of them is more than the population can bear.

Commercial lobstering organizations oppose the new requirement, however, saying that sinking rope is more expensive and will wear out faster. Many fishermen claim that not only will it make it harder for them to earn a living, but it will pose safety hazards to fishermen and to other marine life and will not necessarily provide any benefit to endangered whales.