PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s congressional delegation is asking the Obama administration to resist efforts to ban the import of live Maine lobsters by European Union countries.
The delegation said Monday in a letter that the discovery of a small number of American lobsters in Swedish waters hardly represents an "invasion."
Sweden contends the American lobsters could wipe out their European cousins through interbreeding and introduction of diseases. Sweden asked the EU this month to list American lobster as a "foreign species," which would prohibit imports of live American lobsters into the 28-nation bloc.
Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Bruce Poliquin of Maine addressed their letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Kathryn Sullivan from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.