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Left-Wing Environmentalist Group Takes Steps to Throttle Down Maine’s Lobster Industry
Governor Janet Mills Feigns Concern
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, November 30, 2022
Now that the Left has been successful at getting Maine’s Democrat governor, Janet “Big Sister” Mills across the finish line for a second term, moves are now underway that will severely limit Maine’s lobster industry to continue to be profitable, much less survive, in the foreseeable future - a move that could ultimately clear the way for the Democrats’ “Green Energy” pipe dream of placing off-shore wind generators along the coast of Maine, unfettered by what they perceive to be intrusive lobstermen.
The most recent blow to the Maine lobster industry was a decertification by the London-based left wing environmentalist group, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), who withdrew their certification of Maine’s lobster industry because they were not in compliance with U.S. federal law designed to protect whales and other marine animals—specifically the right whale—even though there has never been a right whale death attributed to Maine lobstering gear.
According to Marianne LaCroix, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, “Losing the MSC certification will have some effects in the lobster market, especially among corporate buyers that require the MSC label for products they sell.”
The MSC is advising that the Maine fleet is not posing a danger to the whales, noted LaCroix. “It's an interesting situation, because they're also saying the industry is doing what it's supposed to do.”
Steve Robinson, from The Maine Wire reports, “According to NOAA whale entanglement data for 2019, there were three entanglements involving U.S.-based lobster gear — two minkes and a humpback — and none of them were fatal...Further, advocates claim there has never been a single right whale death attributed to Maine lobstering gear, nor has there been a right whale entanglement in nearly 20 years.”
The crux of MSC’s decision, which is based on third-party assessors, is environmental law spearheaded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
MSC explained in a November 16, 2022 press release, “US federal law, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), provide for the conservation of marine mammals, including right whales. Implementation falls under the jurisdiction of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, part of the Department of Commerce. In July 2022, a federal court ruling (Center for Biological Diversity v Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce) found that regulations intended to reduce the risk of the Maine lobster fishery to right whales do not meet the legal requirements of the MMPA and ESA for fixed-gear fisheries (fisheries with rope continuously in the water). To meet the requirements of the MSC Fisheries Standard, fisheries must comply with all relevant laws.”
Like most U.S. federal laws, which are highly superfluous at best, this particular law appears to be looking for a problem, rather than addressing a pre-existing issue since lobster ropes are not causing the problems the law seeks to solve to begin with.
Despite its enforcement of clumsy and overbearing laws, NOAA got a big boost in funding with the passage of Joe Biden’s handlers’ “Inflation Reduction Act” which gave the agency (which is not authorized by the U.S. Constitution, anyway) an additional $6 billion in its annual budget. Maine’s Congressional Delegation, consisting of two Democrats in the House of Representatives (Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden) along with an Independent, Angus King in the Senate (really, he’s just another Democrat) sided with Joe Biden’s handlers and voted in favor of increasing NOAA’s budget. Republican Senator, Susan Collins was the only member of Maine’s Congressional delegation to vote against the law to increase NOAA’s budget.
While the aforementioned politicians voted to increase NOAA’s spending they then turned around and issued a harsh criticism of MSC’s decision to withdraw certification of Maine’s lobster industry without realizing that their legislation is part of the problem to begin with.
“Today’s decision by the Marine Stewardship Council to temporarily suspend certification of Maine’s lobster fishery is the result of a years-long campaign from misguided environmentalist groups who seem to be hell-bent on putting a proud, sustainable industry out of business without regard to the consequences of their actions,” the statement said, while ignoring the fact that the decision was based on overbearing and irrelevant U.S. laws currently on the books which they have the power to change.
“Big Sister” Mills also joined the Congressional Delegations’ chorus in order to feign concern in support of the lobstermen. This, despite the fact that her party’s “Green Energy” goals involve, among many prohibitively expensive and inefficient means of generating power, an offshore wind energy scheme that would in fact benefit from the reduction in the lobster industry in Maine by clearing the shorelines for massive wind turbines to litter the coast of Maine in the future.
Earlier this year, Seafood Watch, a left-wing activist arm of California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, added the Maine lobster to its “Red List” of non-sustainable seafood; whatever “non-sustainable seafood” means. As bottom-feeders, lobster are in abundant supply and the lobster industry in Maine is heavily regulated in order to manage lobster populations and prevent over-harvesting.
House Minority Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor), a lobsterman, said MSC’s decision was an act of left-wing environmentalism that has no basis in science. “The decision by the Marine Stewardship Council to decertify the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery is appalling,” said Faulkingham. “The Maine Lobster Industry is a planetary example of how a sustainable, self regulated, conservation-minded, wild caught fishery is supposed to operate.”
“There has never been a North Atlantic Right Whale death linked to the Maine fishery,” Rep. Faulkingham added. “This act of environmental extremism is anti-science, and is attempting to solve a non-existent problem at the expense of the lives and livelihoods of thousands of hard working people and the families they support.”