(The Center Square) – The plan to create a $900,000 legal fund to tag lobsters whose livelihoods could be affected by pending new federal regulations aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales in Critically Endangered have been approved by a Maine legislative panel.

Tuesday’s unanimous vote by the Maritime Services Committee is a reversal for the Democratic-controlled panel, which last week rejected a similar proposal that would have diverted fees the state imposes on the commercial fishing industry to a legal defense fund to help lobsters fight the new regulations. .

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, amended the proposal to draw $500,000 in funding from the state’s general fund, which has had a record surplus. The rest of the funds will come from the state surtax on lobster licenses. Faulkingham, a lobster fisher, also added a two-year expiration date for the new program.

Under the plan, funds would be made available to the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Lobstering Union, two advocacy groups.

The new regulations, due to take effect May 1, will require anglers to make gear modifications to reduce the number of vertical lines in the water and establish a 950-square-mile section of the Gulf of Maine that will be off-limits to traditional lobster fishery during the lucrative winter months.

They will need buoyless or “wireless” fishing gear – an expensive new technology that brings lobster traps to the surface using wireless signals – in some places.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association filed a lawsuit in September to block the regulations, which it says will cost the commercial fishing industry more than $80 million.

In October, a U.S. District Court judge blocked the new rules from taking effect while legal challenges unfolded in court, saying plaintiffs had “a sufficiently high probability of success” for claims related to the seasonal closure. But a federal appeals court issued a ruling that reinstated the seasonal closing provision.

The legal challenge is one of many tied to federal protections for North Atlantic right whales, whose numbers have fallen to around 330 worldwide due to ship strikes, entanglements in fishing gear, poor reproduction and high mortality.

Commercial fishermen say deaths from entanglements are rare and whale protection rules will doom an industry already struggling amid regulations and fishing area closures.

Last week, the Marine Resources Committee approved a separate legislative proposal to create a $30 million relief fund to provide financial assistance to the state’s lobster industry.

The effort to help buoy state lobsters comes after the industry reported a record high last year.

In 2021, Maine lobsters reported landings valued at more than $725 million, the largest increase in the state’s fishing history.

The proposed legal defense fund now goes to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which must approve the bill before sending it to the full legislature for consideration.