Fight to protect right whale, lobsters roils Maine politics

Republican Ed Thelander, a former Navy SEAL who’s operating for Congress in Maine, triggered an enormous stir when he criticized NOAA for imposing new guidelines on the state’s lobstermen as a approach to shield North Atlantic proper whales.

“NOAA needs to rape you and your loved ones, they usually’re saying decide a toddler. … You don’t negotiate with a rapist, and that’s what’s occurring,” Thelander stated at a lobster rally in Portland earlier this month.

Thelander apologized after drawing criticism from his opponent, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, and the state’s Democratic Social gathering, which tweeted the remarks and known as them “disgusting and unproductive.”

Thelander rapidly backtracked at a candidate debate, saying his remarks had been “excessive.” Nonetheless, he and Pingree each stay important of NOAA’s strategy.

In a state the place few issues matter greater than lobster, it’s no shock that Mainers are getting a hefty portion of crustacean politics as a part of the campaigning for the 2022 midterm elections.

What’s shocking, nonetheless, is the excessive stage of anger and frustration pointed squarely at Washington regulators, with many arguing that NOAA’s new guidelines are unfair and can hit the prized lobster trade far too laborious.

Rule backers say they’ll assist shield a dwindling inhabitants of whales that’s at grave danger from fishing gear. Lobstermen should restrict the variety of buoy strains within the water and weaken remaining strains, permitting whales to interrupt free from entanglement and keep away from severe harm.

With an estimated 340 whales now remaining, NOAA has confronted heavy strain and litigation from inexperienced teams and conservationists who concern the animals will go extinct except the federal authorities strikes extra aggressively to guard them (Greenwire, July 11).

However Pingree and different members of the Maine delegation — from each side of the aisle — stated this yr that “NOAA’s personal information present that the Maine fishery has by no means been linked to a proper whale demise.”

‘Horrible disaster’

A number of the loudest critics of the NOAA rule embrace some who aren’t even on the poll this yr, such because the state’s two senators, Republican Susan Collins and unbiased Angus King.

At a scoping discussion board hosted by NOAA on the College of Southern Maine earlier this month, Collins stated the rules are usually not based mostly on scientific information as a result of there has by no means been a proper whale demise attributed to Maine lobster gear.

As well as, she stated, Maine lobstermen had already eliminated greater than 30,000 miles of line from the water.

“The women and men who make up Maine’s iconic lobster fishery are dealing with a horrible disaster, a disaster not of their making, a disaster that is because of this administration’s onerous rules,” Collins advised NOAA officers. “I couldn’t consider tonight after I noticed the presentation saying that this plan is ‘based mostly on a strong scientific basis.’ That’s merely not the case.”

Collins has led the cost in opposition to NOAA all yr, even placing a short lived maintain on a prime company nominee earlier this yr.

She additionally urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who oversees NOAA, to first rescind the rules and later argued that the principles ought to no less than be postponed, arguing that lobstermen had been having a tough time acquiring the brand new gear that might be required (Greenwire, June 24).

King, the state’s junior senator, advised NOAA officers throughout a discussion board this month the company wanted to carry extra conferences with Mainers who could be affected by the rules.

“NOAA wants to make sure that the measures being developed are sensible and possible, and the method must be defensible,” stated King, who caucuses with Democrats. “Up to now, that isn’t the case.”

Pingree and Collins, each distinguished appropriators, helped safe $17.1 million within the fiscal 2022 omnibus spending invoice to assist Maine lobstermen cope with the NOAA rule’s impacts.

Anger at California aquarium

Leaders in different states are additionally involved about guidelines to guard the whales. GOP senators from South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida expressed concern this month a couple of NOAA proposal to forestall boats from hitting the animals. Maine lawmakers requested NOAA to pursue such guidelines.

“Quite than solely specializing in lobstermen and their gear, NOAA should account for the myriad of dangers posed by large vessels in our waters,” Pingree stated in 2020. “Ship strikes are a severe hazard for the fitting whale, and NOAA should reply as to why they’ve uncared for to carry transport vessels and cruise strains accountable for endangering the fitting whale.”

In latest weeks, Maine lawmakers proposed denying federal help to the Monterey Bay Aquarium after its Seafood Watch final month positioned the U.S. lobster fishery on its “Purple Listing,” urging shoppers and companies to keep away from shopping for the crustacean to save lots of the fitting whales.

In a letter to the aquarium’s board of administrators, King, Collins, Pingree, Rep. Jared Golden (D) and Gov. Janet Mills (D) known as the transfer “a reckless piece of activism” and stated it had been performed with “scant proof.”

Earlier this month, King and Golden teamed up on the “Purple Itemizing Monterey Bay Aquarium Act,” introducing payments in each the Home and Senate — H.R. 9150 and S. 5067 — that might prohibit the California-based aquarium from receiving any federal funding.

“Establishments like Monterey Bay Aquarium that declare to be scientific however brazenly flout out there science and information mustn’t obtain taxpayer funds — it’s that straightforward,” stated Golden, sponsor of the Home invoice and one of many chamber’s most average members.

Golden’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Bruce Poliquin, seized on the problem throughout a congressional debate, urging Golden to return a $667 donation that he acquired in 2020 from Julie Packard, the chief director of the nonprofit aquarium.

The difficulty has additionally figured prominently in statewide races, with each Mills and Paul LePage, the Republican candidate for governor, criticizing NOAA.

And final week a gaggle of 120 Republicans operating for state Home and Senate seats known as for the ouster of Democratic Legal professional Basic Aaron Frey, irked that he had not moved to have the state sue NOAA over the lobster rules.

Final month a federal decide in Washington, D.C., upheld the brand new guidelines. However the Maine Lobstermen’s Affiliation obtained a glimmer of fine information final week when the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the lobstermen an expedited enchantment (Greenwire, Oct. 20).