California sustainability group told people to stop eating lobster, so Massachusetts lobstermen file suit

Standing on a dock in his hometown of Gloucester, lobsterman Arthur Sawyer regarded out on the peaceable, calm waters off of Cape Ann.

Sawyer and fellow lobstermen are barred from taking to Massachusetts waters till May 15, a measure the state Division of Marine Fisheries has carried out over time to raised defend North Atlantic proper whales.

When the waters do open, lobstermen use what they are saying are “weak ropes,” geared up with breakaway hyperlinks in-built, which means it’s more likely to half if a North Atlantic proper whale encounters it.

Those conservation efforts should not sufficient for a few of the world’s prime sustainability teams.

Sawyer, president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, and three different Bay State lobster fishers filed a category motion lawsuit earlier this month in opposition to Monterey Bay Aquarium and the worldwide Marine Stewardship Council, teams that take into account lobstering a serious threat to North Atlantic proper whales and, therefore, folks shouldn’t purchase lobsters anymore.

Massachusetts lobstermen say their livelihood is in danger after Monterey Bay Aquarium in California “red-rated” the American lobster final September.

The crimson ranking on the Seafood Watch, a program which the aquarium dubs as a pacesetter within the world sustainable seafood motion, means customers ought to keep away from American lobster caught by lure from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank shares.

Trapping lobsters has depleted the inhabitants of Northern Atlantic proper whales, an endangered species at excessive threat of extinction, in accordance with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are fewer than 340 such whales at the moment, and the aquarium says entanglement in fishing gear is the main reason for harm and demise.

“They have gone overboard targeting Massachusetts when we’ve been doing everything,” Sawyer advised the Herald. “We have 100% closure right now. There is no place safer for right whales right now on the east coast than in Massachusetts waters.”

The Marine Stewardship Council shortly mirrored Monterey Bay Aquarium’s actions by dropping the American lobster from its checklist of sustainable meals.

The plaintiffs — Sawyer; Jarrett Drake, of Marion; Bill Souza, of North Truro; and Eric Meschino, of Plymouth — are searching for $75,000 in damages for disparagement of their aquaculture product and interference with their proprietary rights.

The aquarium is taking exception to the lawsuit.

“This meritless lawsuit ignores the extensive evidence that this fishery poses a serious risk to the survival of the endangered North Atlantic right whale,” an aquarium spokesperson mentioned in a press release, “and it seeks to curtail the First Amendment rights of a beloved institution that educates the public about the importance of a healthy ocean.”

The Seafood Watch assessed U.S. and Canadian fisheries utilizing lure and gillnet gear alongside the East Coast after the feds in 2017 declared an “unusual mortality event” as a consequence of a major die-off of the North Atlantic proper whale from fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes, in accordance with Monterey Bay Aquarium.

American lobster shouldn’t be the one fishery that the aquarium says poses a threat to the North Atlantic proper whale. Seafood Watch assessments additionally discovered threats from Canadian Jonah, rock and snow crabs, and Atlantic croakers, cod, haddock and pollock, amongst others.

Massachusetts lobstermen and marine fishery officers say there isn’t a proof that lobstering is harming the North Atlantic proper whale. Even the feds agree with that assertion, the Aquarium concedes, however they are saying that “does not mean mortalities don’t occur.”

Right whales migrate north to cooler waters in Canada when the waters right here heat up, which tends to occur when the lobstering season begins in mid May.

“They make it sound like we are killing them all of the time but it’s absolutely false,” Sawyer mentioned.

In December, Dan McKiernan, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, referred to as the red-listing “counterproductive to ongoing efforts by his agency and the industry to further reduce entanglement risk.”

In addition to closing off state waters from Feb. 1 by May 15 and lobstermen utilizing weak ropes, McKiernan mentioned all buoy traces used within the U.S. lobster fishery are required to be marked to disclose geographic origin. Massachusetts’ marking scheme is “more distinctive than any other jurisdiction,” he mentioned.

“Massachusetts fishermen have proven time and again that they are committed to fishing in ways that will protect right whales, and maintain a fishery and habitat for the next generation,” McKiernan wrote. “For these historic and heroic fishermen to be demonized by a blanket ‘red-listing’ that does not account for their responsible behavior is unconscionable.”

Beth Casoni, government director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, mentioned the variety of lively industrial lobstermen within the state has stayed constant over time at round 720.

While it’s nonetheless too early to quantify the financial impacts from the crimson ranking, Casoni mentioned, submitting the lawsuit in opposition to Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine Stewardship Council was essential to offer lobstermen an opportunity of curbing any potential detriments.

“We are trying to get ahead of this,” Casoni mentioned, “because when somebody sees ‘Don’t eat lobster’ they’re just going to stop eating it — uneducated, one-sided, and it’s a misrepresentation of what’s actually being done, especially in Massachusetts.”

Supermarket chain Whole Foods and meal-kit corporations Hello Fresh and Blue Apron pulled Gulf of Maine lobsters from their product traces shortly after the actions from Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine Stewardship Council.

Preliminary numbers from the state Division of Marine Fisheries present that state lobstermen earned roughly $81.5 million in 2022, a pointy lower from $125 million in 2021. The trade additionally noticed a drop in lobster poundage between 2021 and 2022, from 16.8 million to 14.5 million kilos.

The Massachusetts trade took in about 2.3 million fewer kilos of lobster in 2022 — right down to 14.5 million kilos from 16.8 million.

“The red listing — telling people not to eat lobster — is going to have a trickle-down effect,” Sawyer mentioned. “It comes back to the boat. If the dealer isn’t going to sell lobsters, he isn’t going to buy them from me or pay me what he usually pays me because the market is getting influenced by environmental extremists.”