washington d.c.-According to an estimate by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the unfair and onerous Atlantic Great Whale Removal Plan (ALWTRP) rule will cost Maine lobsters and women at least $45 million due to trawling, acquisition and addition of weak points, purchase of specialized rope, lengthening of the bottom lines, marking of the material and hiring of an additional team to complete this work.

In an effort to help the lobsters and women of Maine pay for the required gear modification, configuration, and marking, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, wrote to the leaders of the Appropriations Subcommittee of the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS). to seek additional funding to support Maine’s lobster industry. This assistance would be in addition to the $10 million Senator Collins previously obtained in the CJS appropriations bill to help cover the cost of compliance.

“I am writing to reiterate my request for additional funding to help lobsters and women burdened by new right whale regulations acquire and deploy compliant gear,” said Senator Collins in a letter to the CJS appropriations subcommittee. “Faulty and incomplete data is used to inform the rule, and NOAA’s own data shows that the Maine fishery has never been linked to a right whale death. Nevertheless, NOAA is imposing costly new equipment requirements, and I want to help ensure that our lobsters and women receive financial assistance to adjust to these costly changes.

“Without adequate assistance from the federal government, which is responsible for imposing these onerous and misguided requirements on the fishery, many lobsters and women simply cannot afford to make these changes and may subsequently be forced to abandon not only their means of subsistence, but their very way of life,” Senator Collins continued. “It would be unconscionable for the federal government to regulate the closure of these hard-working people, especially when the record clearly demonstrates that they are not the source of the problem.”

Yesterday, Senator Collins joined the entire Maine congressional delegation and Governor Janet Mills in calling on Secretary Raimondo to delay the implementation of the ALWTRP rule from May 1.^st on July 1^st. Failure to carry forward the rule will cost the lobster industry $7.3 million.

Click HERE to read Senator Collins’ letter to the SJC Appropriations Subcommittee.

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