lobster

Last week federal officials announced they aim to deploy high-tech fishing gear on as many as 100 lobster and crab boats in New England. It's the latest move to bring Maine's lobster fleet into a new era, as an onslaught of potentially transformative federal regulations intended to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales take effect.

Maine's Congressional delegation has secured $14 million in federal funds to help lobstermen buy gear that complies with new rules that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from entanglements.

A legislative committee reversed course Tuesday, voting to support a roughly $900,000 fund to pay for the lobster industry's legal fight against federal rules that aim to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against Maine lobster fishermen who sought to block new fishing restrictions that are designed to protect rare whales.

A Trenton-based union that represents lobstermen and other industry stakeholders is making an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt new fishing restrictions in a nearly-one-thousand square mile area off Maine.

On Wednesday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration said lobstermen must remove gear that depends on suspended rope lines from the area, and may not reset it until the seasonal restrictions lift at the end of January.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration says Greenhead Lobster Products made the recall due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, which can cause infections in humans.

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.

Maine's vital lobster industry is facing big challenges: new regulations; fewer young people entering the business; and threats to its thriving lobster population, including climate change.

Virginia Oliver is the oldest lobster fisher in the state and possibly the oldest one in the world. Oliver still faithfully tends to her 200 traps off Rockland, Maine, with her 78-year-old son Max.