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Another lobstering group is suing the feds over whale-conservation restrictions

A lobsterman tosses a buoy overboard while setting his traps in Portland harbor, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Portland, Maine. Lobster prices have been higher than average as the industry rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robert F. Bukaty
/
AP
A lobsterman tosses a buoy overboard while setting his traps in Portland harbor, Thursday, July 8, 2021, in Portland, Maine. Lobster prices have been higher than average as the industry rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fight over federal lobster-gear rules that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales continues to expand.

On Monday, the Maine Lobstering Union announced it is filing a federal lawsuit to try to stop the impending closure of more than 950 square miles of fishing grounds off Maine to traditional lobstering.

That restriction is set to go into effect in two weeks. The lobstering union action follows on the heels of another federal suit filed by a different group, the Maine Lobstermen's Association, that takes aim at the feds 10-year whale protection plan, which that group says is based on outdated information.

Also on Monday, an international conservation group filed a complaint about the federal rules with the Commission on Environmental Cooperation, a multinational inter-governmental trade group.

Oceana is calling on that group to develop a record on whale protection — a record Oceana says would demonstrate that the U.S. rules are inadequate to protect the species from extinction.

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.