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John Fitzgerald of Sedgwick is a semi-retired lawyer, former member of the Northern Right Whale Recovery Team and former policy director of the Society for Conservation Biology. Sandra Scholar is a former assistant general counsel at the National Science Foundation.
The recent deaths of two young North Atlantic right whales, one with Maine lobster rope embedded in her tail, means we must act now. By restoring this species, we also can restore the way its waste fertilizes ocean life. This process can remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere and help the lobster and fishing industries.
Opinion editor Susan Young was right when she wrote in the Feb. 24 Bangor Daily News that smart people should know how to catch lobster without entangling right whales. We not only should know, we do know. Here is a plan that Maine’s congressional delegation can help fund and require while eliminating the delay they imposed on new whale-protective rules:
Reward lobstermen who use whale-safe technology.
Ropeless fishing gear, also called “on-demand fishing gear,” consists of pots or traps on the ocean floor that are raised to the surface by signaling flotation pods to inflate when needed, without the lines used in traditional pot/trap gear. Signaling devices used by each boat captain show the GPS location of each pot/trap.
Ropeless lobster/crab trap technology was featured in the PBS programs ” Entangled” and ” NOVA: Saving the Right Whale.” More information is at the Natural Resources Defense Council/Animal Welfare Institute joint website called “The Future is Ropeless,” and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration website on right whale recovery.
NOAA has a “ropeless gear lending library” for lobstermen to try using ropeless gear. This program should be expanded quickly. It should provide free gear and free training to all lobster and crab fishermen who are interested in exchange for research cooperation on ropeless lobster/crab traps, for a minimum of 10 years to encourage widespread adoption of the technology.
NOAA should also allow fisherpersons who completely switch to whale-safe technology to fish without other gear and zoning restrictions.
NOAA also should start a whale-safe labeling program for lobster to attract buyers just as the dolphin safe label ensures buyers of canned tuna that no dolphins were harmed in catching the tuna.
Large whales play an important role in reducing climate change by sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide in their bodies, and by supplying iron through their waste to fertilize phytoplankton, which is highly effective at capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and forms the basis of the ocean’s food web. The International Monetary Fund has calculated that healthy whale populations could provide billions of dollars’ worth of climate correcting services.
The National Academy of Science recommended research into ocean-based CO2 removal that adds small amounts of iron to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, benefitting the entire food web, including whales, while sequestering more CO2 to reduce climate change while whale populations recover.
We can also help nature to remove methane, another contributor to climate change.
NOAA should work with the state and entities such as the University of Maine and Maine Maritime Academy to assess whether and how to augment depleted micronutrients such as iron to increase phytoplankton, increasing the food supply of all ocean life, including lobster and crab, without harming the environment.
NOAA must immediately impose more effective, enforceable boat speed limits to reduce collisions between boats and whales.
NOAA should work with states and provinces that comprise the full range of the North Atlantic right whales’ habitat to reduce injuries from lines and ship strikes. Once these protections are implemented, the U.S. administration should impose tariffs and/or embargoes on non-whale-safe Canadian lobster unless Canada adopts and enforces a comparable program.
We believe this approach would be a win-win for whales, fishermen, consumers and the climate. And our delegation and administration must act now.