A group of Massachusetts lobster fishers has sued the federal government over an emergency closure of fishing grounds that is designed to protect a vanishing species of whale.
The closure, enacted Feb. 1, blocked off about 200 square miles of Massachusetts Bay from lobster fishing until the end of April. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the closure was necessary to protect The whales number only about 340 in the world and return to the waters off New England every spring. But the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association contends the closure is illegal and will cause economic harm to the industry, and sued the federal agency in court this month.
The fishing group is waiting to hear about a court date, said Beth Casoni, it’s executive director. The group said in court filings that the closure harms and an industry that is “essential to Massachusetts’s culture, heritage, identity and economy,” and the court should reopen the fishing grounds.Sign up for NECN newsletters.A spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declined to comment on the lawsuit because it’s still in court.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has said the closures are important “to protect seasonal aggregations of right whales from potential entanglements in buoy lines.” Some environmental groups have also cheered the restriction because they see it as essential to protecting the whale, which has declined in population in recent years.
Equivalent to 22m and 3.5m pounds of meat.
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