‘Avoid’ lobster from Maine? California aquarium’s warning has lobstermen fighting back

The state of Maine is “synonymous with lobster,” according to a lawsuit filed by lobstermen who argue a California aquarium is damaging their reputation and hurting business.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, has “red” listed buying American lobster from the northwest Atlantic Ocean — including in the waters off Maine — and warns to “avoid” it in its most recent Seafood Watch report published in September 2022.

Seafood Watch says businesses and consumers rely on its scientific recommendations and prides itself as a “global leader in the sustainable seafood movement,” the lawsuit says.

Now, Maine lobster businesses and trade groups have banded together to sue the aquarium and are accusing it of defamation and launching an attack on one of Maine’s key industries. Maine is the leading U.S. producer of lobster, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“The lobster is not just a symbol,” the lobstermen’s complaint filed March 13 says.

The Seafood Watch report says lobstering activities in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank fishery — the region off the coasts of Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia, Canada — is harming endangered North Atlantic right whales that can become entangled in fishing gear. Such entanglement has proven to be fatal.

Maine lobstermen are standing by their practices. They argue the report’s “red” rating of Maine lobster is inaccurate and that no federal data has linked North Atlantic right whale deaths to Maine lobster gear in recent years, the complaint filed in federal court says.

“This is a significant lawsuit that will help eradicate the damage done by folks who have no clue about the care taken by lobstermen to protect the ecosystem and the ocean,” John Petersdorf, the CEO of Bean Maine Lobster Inc., one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Lobstermen are very responsible stewards of the ocean.”

The lawsuit comes nearly two weeks after Massachusetts lobstermen filed a similar lawsuit against Monterey Bay Aquarium on March 3.

A Monterey Bay Aquarium spokesperson told McClatchy News in a statement that both lawsuits are “meritless.”

The “lawsuits ignore the extensive evidence that these fisheries pose a serious risk to the survival of the endangered North Atlantic right whale, and they seek to curtail the First Amendment rights of a beloved institution that educates the public about the importance of a healthy ocean,” the spokesperson said.

NOAA estimates fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales remain in the wild.

Is the Maine lobster fishery harming right whales?

Since 2017, there’s been an unusual increase in North Atlantic right whale deaths and injuries in the U.S. and in Canada, according to NOAA, which is investigating these cases.

The top threats to the species are human-related causes — rope entanglements and vessel strikes, which are the leading causes of their deaths and injuries, according to NOAA.

In Seafood Watch’s warning to “avoid” Maine lobster, it specifically says to avoid American lobster caught with lobster pots, also known as traps that involve the use of ropes, in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank fishery. The warning doesn’t encompass lobstermen using ropeless or on-demand fishing gear.

“This fishery poses a risk to overfished or at-risk species, including endangered North Atlantic right whales,” Seafood Watch says.

NOAA says that lobster fisheries using traps or pots in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region can result in large whales “incidentally” becoming entangled.

To reduce the negative impact of lobstering activities on whales, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan was established in 1997, according to NOAA. The plan is continually updated and requires lobstermen to follow a set of regulations to prevent large whales from getting stuck in their gear.

In 2021, the Take Reduction Plan was updated to include new regulations, including weaker lobster trap ropes designed to break at a heavy force, the lawsuit notes.

“Many individual Maine lobstermen also have implemented additional practices to further protect the right whales, using even less rope than permitted under the Take Reduction Plan,” the complaint says. “These measures are in keeping with the Maine lobster industry’s more than century-old tradition of voluntarily adopting conservation measures to preserve the lobster stock and affected marine resources.”

In addition, 30,000 miles of rope have been removed from waters, a news release on the lawsuit said.

The “real threats” to North Atlantic right whales, according to the lawsuit, are from thick ropes used in Canadian snow crab gear, vessel strikes, climate change and ocean noise caused by human activities.

Report hurts Maine’s lobster industry, lawsuit says

In previous years, the Seafood Watch report rated Maine lobster as “yellow” instead of red, according to the complaint.

The yellow rating recommends consumers and businesses buy a certain seafood while cautioning to “be aware of concerns.”

The complaint accuses the aquarium of basing its ratings on false scientific claims and that its most recent red rating has caused the Maine lobster industry to lose business.

By publicly warning to avoid buying Maine lobster, the aquarium “leveraged its significant influence over public opinion and the commercial decisions of major lobster purchasers, using its public platform to pressure those parties into cutting off business with Plaintiffs,” the complaint says.

In November, Whole Foods announced it would temporarily no longer buy Maine lobster over concerns about harm to North Atlantic right whales following Seafood Watch’s red rating of lobster caught in the state, NPR reported.

The complaint argues demand for Maine-caught lobster has dropped and the average per-pound price of Maine lobster was significantly less, $3.89, between September and December 2022, according to Maine Department of Marine Resources data. During the same months in 2021, the per-pound price of lobster was $6.59.

“I am a sixth-generation lobsterman. I work hard to support my family and depend on a healthy ocean for my livelihood,” plaintiff Gerry Cushman said in a statement. “Like my fellow lobstermen, I will continue to do all I can to protect the ocean and its wildlife just as my forefathers have done.”

The lawsuit seeks to have the aquarium remove its “defamatory statements” against the Maine lobster industry and aims to recover monetary damages.

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