Mother Jones magazine, a cornerstone of the progressive establishment, ran a lengthy piece today entitled: “To Save Whales, Should We Stop Eating Lobster?”
The 2,300-word article can be seen as a reconsideration of the radical environment push to “red list” and otherwise boycott the iconic Maine fishery, and it included some surprise praise for the industry from a federal regulator.
“The US wild-caught American lobster fishery is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under state and federal regulations,” a spokesperson for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told Mother Jones last October.
[RELATED: 8th Dead Whale Washes Up in NJ/NY; NOAA Still Upset with Lobstermen…]
But the Monterey Bay Aquarium, sponsors of the left-wing group Seafood Watch, which red-listed the Maine lobster as non-sustainable last summer, is pressuring NOAA to come down harder on the lobster fishery.
“NOAA is supposed to be working with the states and the industry to identify measures to reduce risk to this whale,” Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, their vice president for oceans told the magazine. She said the Biden Administration is failing to enforce the Endangered Species Act is it doesn’t put more stringent regulations on the industry.
Following the red-listing, Whole Foods and other chains paused their buying Maine lobster. Mother Jones did note that serious questions about the methodology and data both Seafood Watch and London-based Marine Resources Stewardship Council used in claiming the lobster-fishery is harming other sea life.
One right whale researcher from the 1970s recently told The Maine Wire that the number of whales today – 350 – is almost 30 percent higher than it was when she was studying them. So while the whale is on the endangered species list, its numbers have actually grown in recent decades.
Maine’s congressional delegation extracted a six-year reprieve from NOAA’s latest round of limitations on where and how lobstermen can fish from budget negotiations late last year. The in-depth piece in a major left-wing publication suggests a new effort to pressure the industry.
When the Maine Wire asked state House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) said:
“The Maine Lobster Industry is the gold standard of the world when it comes to sustainable wild-caught fisheries. The fishery should be receiving accolades not condemnation.”