Maine will get $17M to collect data on endangered North Atlantic right whale

Photo / Peter Van Allen The Maine Department of Marine Resources will get $17.2 million to help improve data collection on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

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By Peter Van Allen

The Maine Department of Marine Resources will get $17.2 million in federal money to help improve data collection on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The funding comes at a time when the lobster industry is fending off efforts by regulators to restrict certain fishing gear. The industry says any new regulations could mean thousands of dollars in gear upgrades for individual lobster harvesters.

“The goal of this research is to collect data that tells us what is happening in the Gulf of Maine, so we can be protective of whales in a way that also doesn’t devastate Maine’s critically important lobster industry,” said DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

The funding comes from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was passed by Congress in December 2022 and earmarked $26 million for states with lobster fisheries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will oversee the research, which will be administered through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The funding was secured by Maine's congressional delegation.

Gov. Janet Mills said the funds will take some of the burden off the DMR while shedding more light on how the lobster industry affects the right whale.

“These funds will ensure that federal regulators can no longer burden this vital industry with management decisions based on poor data that threaten the livelihoods of thousands of Mainers. I thank Maine’s Congressional Delegation for its work to secure this important funding," Mills said.

What the money will pay for

The lobster industry and Maine's own regulators say there isn't enough data to determine whether lobster gear poses a threat to the right whale. The funding will allow Maine regulators to expand right whale research and improve the assessment of risk posed by fixed gear fisheries in advance of future federal rulemaking.

The Department of Marine Resources will use the funds to improve data on right whale presence by conducting passive acoustic monitoring at 26 sites throughout the Gulf of Maine. These sites will be in addition to eight passive acoustic monitoring moorings deployed since 2020 in collaboration with Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the University of Maine.

In addition, DMR will conduct surveys of right whales in the Gulf of Maine by boat and airplane. It will also survey the whale's primary food source, a species of zooplankton known as Calanus finmarchicus.

Federal regulators use a model, known as the Decision Support Tool, which incorporates data on whale density and lobster fishing gear location and configuration to assign the risk of serious injury and mortality to right whales. The model allows federal regulators to assess how that risk changes under different management scenarios.

Maine’s recently enacted reporting and tracker requirements for state and federally permitted lobster harvesters is a critical component of this work, and it will greatly improve available data on fishing effort in the Gulf of Maine, the DMR said.

“Having better data on whale distribution in addition to gear location and configuration will vastly improve the ability of the federal government to focus their efforts on the areas of greatest risk” said Keliher.

“DMR’s approach is to not use assumptions, but rather the best available data so NOAA understands that the Maine lobster fishery is not the threat they make it out to be. This will allow them to develop more targeted management measures, which will reduce the burden on this industry.”