State has new plan to curb North Atlantic right whale entanglements

Doug Fraser Cape Cod Times

Published Dec 17, 2020 

New federal rules to reduce the chances of endangered right whales becoming entangled in lobster pot and gillnet gear are expected soon, but so are the whales, with as much as 2/3 of the remaining population arriving in state waters in the coming months.

Hoping to have additional protections in place, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries held public hearings last week on a plan they believe will make the state compliant with the federal plan and satisfy a judge’s order.

Friday is the last day to submit public comment on the plan which, among other things, would close down all state waters to fishing with lobster pots for three months beginning Feb. 1 and close an additional area off Scituate to gillnet fishing. All recreational lobster and crab pot gear would also have to be out of the water from the day after Columbus Day through the Friday before Memorial Day.

At a virtual public hearing on the proposed plan, Daniel McKiernan, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, told the approximately 200 interested parties who tuned in on Dec. 8 that his agency modeled the new measures on what they believe will be in a new federal right whale plan that he thinks will be released soon.

The federal plan was supposed to reduce the risk of entanglement by 60%, including a 30% cut in the number of vertical buoy lines in Massachusetts and 50% decrease in Maine, although some have said the reductions should be on the order of 80% following a readjusted population estimate that pushed the number of surviving whales down to just 355.

“These are the regulations that will do that,” McKiernan said of the 60% reduction.

Both the state and federal plan are the result of litigation designed to protect right whales from entanglement, the major cause of human-induced right whale mortality. NOAA reported that there were only 22 calves born from 2017 to Nov. 2020, with 31 mortalities over that same period. Being hit by ships was once the leading cause of death, but that has changed, with entanglements causing 85% of mortalities between 2010 and 2015.

Just 80 to 90 of the remaining whales are females and scientists have determined that to avoid extinction, less than one right whale a year can be killed by humans.

This fall, a federal judge in Boston doubled down on her order for the Division of Marine Fisheries to get a special permit under the Endangered Species Act that required the agency to demonstrate how it would keep right whale deaths from lobstering to less than one per year. 

That requirement added more layers to the new regulation, including requiring all buoy lines to break at 1,700 pounds of force, a breaking strength which studies have shown allow adult right whales to shed lines. Fishermen can also use devices that create a weak point in the line that parts at 1,700 pounds of pressure, commonly known as the South Shore sleeves.

As of Jan. 2022, the use of single lobster pots linked to a buoy by all vessels greater than 29 feet in length is prohibited. Instead, they must use multi-trap trawls, two or more traps linked with rope but connected to a surface buoy by a line at either end.

Orleans lobsterman Steve Smith said that would compromise safety for those fishing the rough waters off the Outer Cape.

“This safety issue is real,” Smith said.

Many fish single-handed, and deploying and retrieving a line of linked pots is complicated by the increased amount of line and the added weight, he said. With weighted pots dropping fast over the side of the vessel, the line can bunch up and snag an unwary fisherman, pulling him overboard and down.

“I know guys that get their foot caught in (deploying) a single trap,” Smith said. “It’s just plain unsafe.”

There were requests at the public hearing for data on the economic impacts to fishermen of the new plan on the state’s 800 active commercial lobster license holders and many more with a recreational permit. But McKiernan said that analysis wasn’t ready. He did say that around 3% of the total lobster catch was landed during the three-month closure period and that around 100 state commercial permit holders also held federal permits and could fish in federal waters beyond three miles.

DMF Senior Biologist Robert Glenn said the agency had obtained a grant to help fishermen transition to weaker lines and links.

“It can’t completely defer the costs, but it will take a big bite out of it,” he said.

A lot of hope is being placed on what are known as ropeless buoy lines, where marker buoys rest on the bottom until summoned with a signal from the vessel. The technology exists and works, advocates say, but it is expensive. McKiernan said that at current prices, it would cost $100 million to outfit the Massachusetts lobster fleet.

Conservation Law Foundation Senior Attorney Erica Fuller praised the Division of Marine Fisheries for being a leader in tackling the right whale crisis.

“(T)hese new proposed regulations are another step in the right direction,” she said. “But even this proposal may not be enough given the species’ status and it’s imperative that we all find and fund new technological solutions that work for fishermen and whales, as soon as possible.”