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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to expand a pilot throughout New England that allows certain lobstermen to fish areas that are seasonally closed to protect endangered right whales. To participate, they must agree to test so-called on-demand or ropeless fishing gear.
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Rep. Jared Golden introduced a bill on Thursday that would prohibit commercial offshore wind development in Lobster Management Area 1. This is the area used by most Maine lobstermen who fish in federal waters.
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The Marine Stewardship Council suspended the fishery's certification last week, only months after the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program red-listed the lobster because of risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales.
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Maine’s congressional delegation also wants federal officials to provide Maine fishermen and other stakeholders with access to a tool to assess the effect of new fishing management measures.
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The Natural Resources Defense Council and other conservation groups are challenging a seafood watchdog's recertification of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery as a sustainable resource.
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Federal fisheries officials are proposing a special permit to allow up to 100 New England lobster and crab boats to use experimental high-tech systems to retrieve their traps.
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A federal appeals court is reinstating restrictions on fishing gear in a nearly 1,000 square mile swathe of ocean off Maine's coast. It's a blow to Maine's lobstermen and a victory for advocates for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
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The federal restriction is set to go into effect on Monday, and last through the end of January. It's the first in a series of new federal gear rules aimed at reducing the risk that North Atlantic right whales will be entangled with trap rope and gear.
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The Mills administration is also working with state's congressional delegation to find ways to mitigate impacts on the industry.
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The groups have joined forces to launch a lobster boycott effort this spring, after a right whale named Cottontail was found dead in southeastern waters, apparently from entanglement with fishing gear.