Maine lobstermen chafe at rope ban to help whales

[The Straight Story]

Maine lobstermen chafe at rope ban to help whales

By CLARKE CANFIELD – 23 hours ago

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — Frank Thompson was among the scores of unhappy lobstermen who delivered millions of feet of rope to a warehouse in this fishing community.

He said the fishing rope piled high in his pickup truck and trailer was still good, except for one thing: Come Sunday, it will be illegal.

A new federal regulation, years in the works, outlaws the use of floating rope that connects millions of lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Marine scientists and conservationists say using rope that sinks will make the whales less prone to getting snagged as they lumber through the Gulf of Maine each spring and summer.

Lobstermen such as Thompson, who lives on the island of Vinalhaven, say the rule will increase costs and do little, if anything, to help whales. They claim the regulation is overkill and could make lobstermen as endangered as the whales.

"They're slowly driving us out of the lobster business, aren't they?" a grim-faced Thompson said last week.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gA6UF-ko-lkmfxnahqFXgUSztcWgD97BPOC80

bah. Make em use a zebco with a bobber and worm like I do :)

[flvegan]

1. Seems to me they could use rope that sinks

and tie the line to one drop rope connected to a GPS buoy. They pull the one buoy and pull up the trapline one trap at a time.

[The Straight Story]

2. Or they could just make lobster farms and raise them there

And it could increase tractor sales for John Deere. Not sure what they would use the tractor for, but if you have a farm you have to have one. Unless you are Amish.

[bluedigger]

3. That is what they do.

Without the GPS. The lobster traps are strung together, sink to the bottom of their own weight and are marked by the buoy on the surface. Most lobsterman run hundreds of traps but I'm not sure how many per buoy. They don't need GPS as their navigation skills are amazing! I had a ride out to an island once in a complete fog out and it was incredible how the lobsterman knew exactly where he was. Anyways, the reg's should have provided for a transition period and required new rope to be of the whale friendly kind, not to require them to replace perfectly good rope. Now we have millions of feet of rope destined for what - a landfill? Morons...

[petronius]

4. I can see how the sinking line would reduce whale entanglements,

but it seems like it would increase the likelihood of a trap line getting snagged on the bottom, as well as a more difficult (impossible?) recovery of a trap line that had lost its buoy - which would mean more lost/ghost traps.

I wonder if there's any way to identify sources of the gear that was involved in those 25 entanglements - if it was lobster traps then this rule makes sense, but if it's not, this could kill the fishery for no reason...

[bluedigger]

5. If the buoy comes loose

then the traps are gone - unless a diver can recover them. That is a major financial loss for the lobsterman, and why they make sure their ropes are in good shape. I would hope that some sort of research was done to ensure that the lobster lines are the source of the problem before they enacted the new reg's, but never assume, I guess...