Standing on a dock in his hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts, lobsterman Arthur Sawyer looked out at the peaceful, calm waters off of Cape Ann.
Sawyer and fellow lobstermen are barred from taking to Massachusetts waters until May 15, a measure the state Division of Marine Fisheries has implemented over the years to better protect North Atlantic right whales.
When the waters do open, lobstermen use what they say are “weak ropes,” equipped with breakaway links built in, meaning it’s likely to part if a North Atlantic right whale encounters it.
Those conservation efforts are not enough for some of the world’s top sustainability groups.
Sawyer, president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, and three other Bay State lobster fishers filed a class action lawsuit earlier this month against Monterey Bay Aquarium and the international Marine Stewardship Council, groups that consider lobstering a major risk to North Atlantic right whales and, hence, people shouldn’t buy lobsters anymore.
Massachusetts lobstermen say their livelihood is at risk after Monterey Bay Aquarium in California “red-rated” the American lobster last September.
The red rating on the Seafood Watch, a program which the aquarium dubs as a leader in the global sustainable seafood movement, means consumers should avoid American lobster caught by trap from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank stocks.
Trapping lobsters has depleted the population of Northern Atlantic right whales, an endangered species at high risk of extinction, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are fewer than 340 such whales today, and the aquarium says entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of injury and death.
“They have gone overboard targeting Massachusetts when we’ve been doing everything,” Sawyer told the Herald. “We have 100% closure right now. There is no place safer for right whales right now on the east coast than in Massachusetts waters.”
The Marine Stewardship Council quickly mirrored Monterey Bay Aquarium’s actions by dropping the American lobster from its list of sustainable foods.
The plaintiffs — Sawyer; Jarrett Drake, of Marion; Bill Souza, of North Truro; and Eric Meschino, of Plymouth — are seeking $75,000 in damages for disparagement of their aquaculture product and interference with their proprietary rights.
The aquarium is taking exception to the lawsuit.
“This meritless lawsuit ignores the extensive evidence that this fishery poses a serious risk to the survival of the endangered North Atlantic right whale,” an aquarium spokesperson said in a statement, “and it seeks to curtail the First Amendment rights of a beloved institution that educates the public about the importance of a healthy ocean.”
The Seafood Watch assessed U.S. and Canadian fisheries using trap and gillnet gear along the East Coast after the feds in 2017 declared an “unusual mortality event” due to a significant die-off of the North Atlantic right whale from fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium.
American lobster is not the only fishery that the aquarium says poses a risk to the North Atlantic right whale. Seafood Watch assessments also found threats from Canadian Jonah, rock and snow crabs, and Atlantic croakers, cod, haddock and pollock, among others.
Massachusetts lobstermen and marine fishery officials say there is no evidence that lobstering is harming the North Atlantic right whale. Even the feds agree with that assertion, the Aquarium concedes, but they say that “does not mean mortalities don’t occur.”
Right whales migrate north to cooler waters in Canada when the waters here warm up, which tends to happen when the lobstering season begins in mid May.
“They make it sound like we are killing them all of the time but it’s absolutely false,” Sawyer said.
In December, Dan McKiernan, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, called the red-listing “counterproductive to ongoing efforts by his agency and the industry to further reduce entanglement risk.”
In addition to closing off state waters from Feb. 1 through May 15 and lobstermen using weak ropes, McKiernan said all buoy lines used in the U.S. lobster fishery are required to be marked to reveal geographic origin. Massachusetts’ marking scheme is “more distinctive than any other jurisdiction,” he said.
“Massachusetts fishermen have proven time and again that they are committed to fishing in ways that will protect right whales, and maintain a fishery and habitat for the next generation,” McKiernan wrote. “For these historic and heroic fishermen to be demonized by a blanket ‘red-listing’ that does not account for their responsible behavior is unconscionable.”
Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, said the number of active commercial lobstermen in the state has stayed consistent over the years at around 720.
While it’s still too early to quantify the economic impacts from the red rating, Casoni said, filing the lawsuit against Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine Stewardship Council was necessary to give lobstermen a chance of curbing any potential detriments.
“We are trying to get ahead of this,” Casoni said, “because when somebody sees ‘Don’t eat lobster’ they’re just going to stop eating it — uneducated, one-sided, and it’s a misrepresentation of what’s actually being done, especially in Massachusetts.”
Supermarket chain Whole Foods and meal-kit companies Hello Fresh and Blue Apron pulled Gulf of Maine lobsters from their product lines shortly after the actions from Monterey Bay Aquarium and Marine Stewardship Council.
Preliminary numbers from the state Division of Marine Fisheries show that state lobstermen earned roughly $81.5 million in 2022, a sharp decrease from $125 million in 2021. The industry also saw a drop in lobster poundage between 2021 and 2022, from 16.8 million to 14.5 million pounds.
The Massachusetts industry took in about 2.3 million fewer pounds of lobster in 2022 — down to 14.5 million pounds from 16.8 million.
“The red listing — telling people not to eat lobster — is going to have a trickle-down effect,” Sawyer said. “It comes back to the boat. If the dealer isn’t going to sell lobsters, he isn’t going to buy them from me or pay me what he usually pays me because the market is getting influenced by environmental extremists.”
