MAINE COALITION FOR
NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES
At the end of 2022, Maine Senator Susan Collins, with the backing of the rest of Maine’s congressional delegation and governor, attached a rider to the Omnibus spending bill granting a six year delay on new lobster/crab pot fishing regulations to prevent right whale and other large whale entanglements. This rider was an end-run around an established regulatory process, overriding a 2021 Federal Court ruling that found existing regulations to have seriously violated two of our nation’s bedrock environmental laws: the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The rider, in proclaiming the 2021 regulations to be in full compliance with these laws, has rendered them largely meaningless, and has set a dangerous precedence for further avoidance of environmental law.
While this action has been celebrated as a “well-deserved break” for fishermen, the delay presents a serious threat to the future of the right whale and may put Maine fishermen at a competitive disadvantage in the long run. READ MORE >>
ENTANGLEMENT PREVENTION: COLLABORATION BETWEEN FISHERMEN, SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS
Learn more about how whale entanglement occurs, and how collaborative problem-solving, gear research and testing is helping to prevent large whale entanglement.
Video: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
FACTS ABOUT RIGHT WHALES IN MAINE
Are there right whales in Maine waters? Is entanglement really a problem for right whales? The Maine Coalition for North Atlantic Right Whales is committed to sharing facts about right whales, along with links to sources and peer-reviewed scientific research.
ABOUT THE MAINE COALITION FOR NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES
The Maine Coalition for North Atlantic Right Whales is a group of Maine scientists, educators and concerned citizens whose mission is to provide the public with accurate facts and scientific data pertaining to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, and to advocate for its recovery. We are committed to fact-based education about the human-caused threats right whales face along the Maine coast, and throughout their coastal ocean home on the eastern seaboard of North America.