Members of Maine's congressional delegation are targeting the California aquarium that recently "red listed" lobster by trying to cut off all federal funding to the institution.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-District 2, and independent Sen. Angus King announced Wednesday that they plan to introduce bills to block federal dollars from flowing to the Monterey Bay Aquarium because the organization has “irresponsibly ignored scientific facts and the lobster fishery’s history of sustainability.”
Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-District 1, plan to co-sponsor the proposals.
The announcement comes one month after the aquarium's Seafood Watch program urged consumers to avoid lobster because of the risks that fishing gear poses to endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 350 right whales left in existence and that fishing entanglements, as well as ship strikes, are top threats to the species. But Maine’s lobster industry has responded by pointing out that no right whale entanglements have been linked to the fishery since 2004 and there has never been a whale death attributed to Maine lobster gear — facts they attribute to gear modifications and other steps taken by lobstermen to reduce the risk of entanglements.
Maine's political leadership has locked arms with the state's powerful lobster industry — which generates more than $1 billion in economic activity — to denounce the Seafood Watch "red listing" as being without any scientific basis.
“The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s ‘Red Listing’ of Maine lobster is a baseless attack on a proud, sustainable fishery and a clear attempt to put thousands of Maine people out of work,” King said in a statement. “By refusing to provide any evidence supporting their harmful decision and ignoring facts that undercut their conclusion, the Aquarium has made it clear that they are not a serious scientific organization, and certainly not one that deserves taxpayer funding.”
In a statement, the Monterey Bay Aquarium says the Seafood Watch ratings "reflect a management failure."
“The U.S. fisheries which use gear with vertical lines were red-rated because their governing agencies did not keep them in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” the aquarium said in a statement.
“This reaction distracts from the real issue: the urgent need for government to get these fisheries back into compliance. In addition, the funding figure sighted [sic] is factually incorrect. It confuses Monterey Bay Aquarium with MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute), a separate organization which partners with Monterey Bay Aquarium and is not involved with Seafood Watch.”
The delegation announced the bills on the same day that members plans to speak in support of the lobster industry and against new proposed restrictions from federal regulators. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is holding a public scoping session on its proposed modifications to the right whale rules at the University of Southern Maine on Wednesday evening.
