Whales Keep Getting Caught in Fishing Lines. Is the Lobster Industry to Blame?

everybody just bunks up

at this time of year matthew cooney

would normally be checking his traps for

lobster

we'll go down the south channel back out

and pick up the north channel again

but instead he's brought his fellow

lobstermen together to protest new state

rules protecting the critically

endangered north atlantic right whale

these restrictions order lobstermen to

use lines that can break more easily

and bans them from setting traps in

state waters between february and may

when the whales migrate north for the

summer so why did you organize this

protest

four months without a paycheck for

anybody working is um

a long time that's a third of the year

that's a big deal and you know this is a

force closure

on hundreds of and it affects hundreds

of people and there's a trickle effect i

mean you know

it's affecting boats boat owners crew

shore side lobster dealers restaurants

this has a big effect

on coastal communities lobstering is a

95 million dollar business in

massachusetts

but it's recently been struggling 2020

with the pandemic was one of the worst

seasons on record

and now lobstermen say the new ban could

cost them as much as a quarter of their

income

dave casoni who's on the board of the

massachusetts lobstermen's association

thinks his industry's been unfairly

singled out in part because the

entanglements could be happening

anywhere along the north atlantic

seaboard

the only thing lower than us is the

lobster we're trying to harvest

and realize we're trying to outsmart a

creature that has no brain

bad for our ego we're at a point where

when they are constantly being bombarded

if you will

by people with well intentions on

minimizing the encounters they keep

saying we've done it

we've done it and we will do it up to a

point

and that point being stopping us from

making a living

are you worried for the lobster fishing

industry in massachusetts

i'm concerned that actions would be

taken

that would really severely

hurt harm endanger the lobster fishing

rather than what it should be intended

to do

to minimize again the encounters with

this animal

that way please he's hiding away from us

christy hudak who studies right whale

behavior says encounters with vertical

lines are extremely common

and with only about 400 north atlantic

right whales left on earth

they can be devastating how does fishing

and lobstering

impact the right whale population it's

all impacting the right whales

because as they're swimming around

they're not paying attention what's in

the water

and so unfortunately with any of the

fishing gear

or any other type of gear in the water

it's entangling them

and eventually causing death why

should people be concerned about saving

the species

any whale is a key species the reason is

they bring the nutrients to the surface

and also

down to the bottom as they're feeding

it's part of the

circle of life without the whales you're

going to start seeing a dead ocean

this month the national oceanic and

atmospheric administration

is considering extending the seasonal

ban to federal waters across new england

meaning maine's half billion dollar

lobster industry could be next

when i was a sophomore in college we

spent six weeks at sea on a 120-foot

schooner

that's when i saw my first whales and i

got hooked

amy knowlton's research helped shape the

massachusetts rules

she thinks these restrictions should be

just the start

i mean this is a right whale that's a

regular skeleton yep okay

that's a juvenile right whale probably

two or three years old

lobstermen have said that we haven't

seen a right whale in these waters

in years like we haven't entangled

anything why are we

bearing the brunt of these restrictions

through our work we've documented over

1600 entanglement events

but we have no idea where it occurred so

in the absence of

of not knowing where they occur but

recognizing that they

have occurred in the past up and down

the eastern seaboard i don't think any

fixed gear fishery is

considered safe right now because of how

they

presently fish another thing that i've

been hearing from from lobsterman is

that it's too expensive what can we do

to make this feasible

well i think it probably is a

combination of things but i think most

importantly i think the federal

government

has to help subsidize if fishermen have

to shift to another

job i think that should be they should

be helped in that transition

do you feel that the lobster industry

will have to reimagine itself 10 20

years down the line

well i think the next couple of years

will be interesting

it's going to be incremental i think

right now but if it

doesn't address the threat to wright

whales adequately it might have to

be further reimagined

there's always stuff to do

so are there lockers in here yep so

these are all lobsters

and then these are big how many pounds

is this guy they're between four and six

pounds so probably right around five

pounds

oh my god so they get packed in 30 pound

boxes the normal like

inshore boats that fish in state waters

catch smaller so

like

so more like this size a pound and a

quarter pound and a half

tessa brown runs the cape and lobstermen

the main drop-off point where lobstermen

return their halls in gloucester so

normally like now is when guys would

start

putting traps in the water like all

those are online because of the closure

right but normally it would be like

april 1st everyone would start getting

back in the state waters going

and then through february okay but all

of those are out there because of the

restrictions because they're not able to

so those are all traps that got taken

out because they can't be in state

waters

gloucester is the oldest fishing port in

america so the whole gloucester was

built on fishing

i offload a lot of the boats myself

where i'll be out here so i talk to them

all the time

and it's basically like their way life

100 it brings in a huge amount of

revenue between

like fuel marinas

the lobsters the bait and i think in my

lifetime

we've seen so many people that have gone

out of business or have lost like their

whole livelihood two fishing because of

regulations

it'll eventually get to a point where

like if no one's making any money

it doesn't make sense really to continue

how do you anticipate these restrictions

will impact your business

like right now the price lobsters is

high state wires are closed so when

normally all these boats would start

going fishing

like these seasonal restaurants that

would open they might put lobster on

their menu because it's

an affordable thing that everyone wants

and they come here all summer but right

now it's like

they might not even put it on their menu

because the price is so high because of

the restrictions

because of the restrictions and i think

as time goes on you'll see

like this is it just started so we

haven't really seen

what the effects are going to be it's

like an unknown so it's hard to plan

like we plan for the season when the

season ends we're planning for the next

season to start with bait or

just holding all the product it's hard

to plan you can't really plan anything

normally they'd be fishing now everyone

would be

out and be much more alive but they

can't so it's sort of just like a

waiting game

• you