That’s the new word in the lobster business – breakaways. That’s the new law now, too, breakaway gear. Right now it’s breakaway swivels on the pot buoys. The purpose of this is to stop the entrapment of right whales by having gear that will break away when pressure is brought to bear on the warp. The swivel will break and off goes the pot buoy, adrift. Whether this would save a whale remains to be seen.
The next new breakaway being considered by the federal government is at the toggle, or float. They’re even considering banning floats altogether, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
These breakaway changes to gear are the result of laws passed by the federal government, particularly the Endangered Species Act. Animal rights activists have threatened to sue the government in the name of “save the right whale – or else.” (Suing seems to be a national pastime lately, engaged in by almost everybody over almost everything.)
Anybody who goes to haul (do you suppose any of those people making the laws have?) knows that pot buoys and floats are crucial to keep gear from being lost. Pot buoys mark where the traps are, and are the means of getting the traps. Floats allow leeway on the rope between the traps and the buoy. When the pot buoy is gaffed and pulled into the hauler, there is enough rope to do it without the weight of the traps bearing on it, so the hauler can do the work instead of the lobsterman’s back. When the buoy is gone, the only way to save the traps is to gaff the float. If the float is gone, there is no way to find, or bring up, the traps so they are lost.
Now, this breakaway gear might not be a cause for lost gear, but there’s more than a good chance it will. There’s more than a whale that can get into gear. Lobster gear already takes a beating from storms and from ocean traffic – barges, scallopers and seiners, sailboats and motor yachts. A lobsterman should have the right to protect his gear, his living, by making it as strong as possible. To be forced to make it weaker makes no sense.
Lobstering is a big and expensive investment – boats, traps, buoys, rope and the cost of equipment required by rules and regulations. And it’s a pile of work to be a lobsterman. Breakaways that will most likely break under these adverse circumstances may result in substantial loss of this costly gear. Who is going to pay for that? The government? The activists? Yessah.
What I’d like to know is what right whales have got to do with the lobstermen of Penobscot Bay. Exactly how many whales have been saved by these measures in these waters? Why do breakaways have to be a blanket law for the whole industry, no matter whether the gear is in the path of a whale or not? Has a whale ever been seen in 7 fathom of water, or 15, or 25 fathoms? How about in the Reach, or around Malcolm’s, Brimstone, the Red Sea, the Old Hoss or the Old Woman’s Ass?
If the government, practically blackmailed by the activists, wants to protect right whales and thinks breakaways will do it, then their laws should apply only to where these whales go, not to where they don’t go. Every lobsterman on the Maine coast should not have to pay through the nose for someone’s cockamamie idea that breakaways are needed where there are no endangered right whales.
Considering how important lobstering is to the state of Maine – Maine lobster being famous all over the world – you’d think “our” people in Washington would be sticking their oar in to protect their lobster industry of great fame. Letting Maine lobstermen get buried by rules and regulations, along with additional and rising costs, is not my idea of caring about them. Have they lost their oars? I bet they like to eat lobster, though.
So, what’s to do about all this? Not much, once a law has been enacted, except to do it. Apparently some people think there will always be lobstermen, no matter what is done to them.
To that I would say, maybe some people should think again. Where are the gillnetters and draggers these days? Gone. Ruled and regulated out of business. Where are the stop seiners and tub trawlers? Gone. Where are O’Hara’s and Stinson’s fishing fleets? Gone. Not only are they gone, but the processors dependent on their catch – redfish and sardine plants – are gone. In the heyday of these fishing industries, do you think anyone thought they’d be gone in a mere 20 or 30 years? Could lobstering possibly be next?
It seems to me that the lobster industry should be of the highest priority to the state of Maine. Rules and regulations should be made to protect the lobstermen, not undermine them. The chance of this happening is probably never, but one can hope.
Maybe some thought should be given to giving lobstermen a break – instead of breakaways!
– Rusty Warren
Vinalhaven