YORK, Maine – Several members of the Maine lobster industry are suing the Monterey Bay Aquarium for defamation over its decision to redlist American lobsters, which has sparked boycotts.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Fishermen’s Association and four other groups filed a lawsuit against the Monterey Aquarium Foundation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. They say the aquarium made false and defamatory statements about Maine lobster fishing practices and misled consumers about the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
In the lawsuit, Seafood Watch, our aquarium program, urged food vendors and consumers not to eat lobster caught in May Bay and George’s Bank, Maine. This has caused stores like Whole Foods to cut back on Maine lobster sales, and restaurants around the country like The Cheesecake Factory have followed suit.
“The aquarium alleges that the Maine lobster fishery is directly responsible for the injuries and deaths of the right whales,” the lawsuit says.
What is the case looking for?
The lawsuit was also filed by Bean Maine Lobster, Inc., Bug Catcher Inc., Atwood Lobster, LLC and Maine Lobster and Processing, LLC. The lawsuit forced the aquarium to remove “any defamatory statements about the Maine lobster industry and fishery” from its website and published materials. It also asks the aquarium to pay damages for “any loss or future loss of value to the plaintiffs” as a result of “defamatory statements”.
May Bay lobster tag
Seafood Watch said they are changing the name of the Gulf lobster because entanglement in fishing gear is “a leading cause of serious injury and death to North Atlantic right whales.” Glass pots or traps generally have little impact on the environment, but the cumulative effects of large-scale fishing are “underestimated,” they said. They gave the same name to the American lobster found in 11 other parts of the Atlantic Ocean.
The lawsuit alleges that the aquarium ignored statistical trends, “misrepresented facts” and misrepresented information about right whales. They claim that the aquarium relies on “irrelevant” data from Canadian Maine lobstermen.
They also objected to the precise language used by the aquarium, which argued that lobster fishing was to blame for the death of the white whale. From 2015 to 2019, it cited the aquarium’s statement on documents that included trapping equipment “of unknown fisheries that may be part of the lobster fishery.”
This is not “science”; speculation,” he said. “There is no evidence to support the aquarium’s claims about the Maine lobster fishery.”
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Maine’s lobster industry is rebounding
Lobster fisheries have been subject to stricter regulations for years leading up to a boycott by Seafood Watch. They have color-coded threads and threads that break on contact with the whale to prevent tangling. Members of the lobster industry say the right whale rule is a handicap to the fishery.
Maine lobstermen challenged the rule, arguing that there is no record of a right whale being harmed or killed in connection with Maine lobster nets in 18 years. They reiterated that point in a lawsuit filed Monday.
The Maine Lobster Association and other groups previously filed a federal lawsuit last year against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which enforces the rules. A federal appeals court heard arguments in the case two weeks ago, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Federal regulators say the whales are in danger
Federal regulators are concerned about the threat lobster fisheries pose to right whale populations. Allison Ferreira of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors the Ford fishery, said last year that the right whale was not identified in recent interactions with lobstermen, which does not mean the death did not occur. He said about nearly 1,600 injuries and cases assessed by researchers at the New England Aquarium, only about 16 were found in fishing grounds, or 1 percent.
Ferreira said that since 2020, the state is required to mark their teeth with a special purple color, large whales have been caught in the gear of Maine fishermen. Last year, he said, a whale had its teeth removed by a Maine fisherman fishing in federal waters. . He also said that in 2020 and 2021, two dead minke whales were found in the purple-marked strand, and two severed minke whales were found in the purple-marked strand.