Maine’s top fisheries official on Friday asked lobstermen to reduce their vertical fishing lines in an area in the Gulf of Maine where endangered North Atlantic right whales are believed to be gathered.
“As many as 90 individual right whales have been identified” off the western edge of Jeffreys Ledge, Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said in a statement.
Roughly 370 North Atlantic right whales are estimated to be living. NOAA Fisheries describes them as “one of the world’s most endangered large whale species” and cites vessel strikes and entanglement with fishing gear as the leading causes of mortality.
Keliher said recent information suggests the cluster of right whales might be feeding within Jeffreys Basin, and the greatest overlap between fishing gear and whales appears to be in depths greater than 300 feet.
To minimize the risk of the endangered whales getting tangled in fishing lines, Keliher urged lobstermen to remove their gear altogether or drop one endline to reduce the number of vertical lines in the area.
The area where the whales are believed to be is east of York, between Boon Island Light and Jeffreys Ledge.
Keliher warned that a single whale entanglement could be linked “not just to the Maine fishery, but potentially to an individual fisherman” and could lead to additional federal restrictions, closed areas and “limiting the use of traditional gear (i.e. rope).”
“Let me be clear, this is not mandatory, this would be a voluntary action on your part – however failure of the industry to self-regulate your activity could be costly in the long run,” Keliher said.