War on Maine’s Lobstermen?

If you want an emblem of the “man’s man,” larger than life, daring and doing, self-reliant, depend-on-nature, a make-it-happen guy, who rises with the dawn, works hard, asks little, wants little, values independence, and will never fly a desk… that’s the Maine lobsterman or woodsman. Now, they are being scapegoated for wind farms – or some other cause – apparently killing Right whales. Go figure.

A more cynical irony is hard to imagine. The wind subsidy crowd, sure they will make money off the taxpayer-funded “green wave” with gold at the end of a government-funded rainbow, has decided – in Washington and “activist cells” around America – to hit Maine’s lobstermen. Wrong.

Why? The argument is that lobster fishermen – who have fished for 400 years, since 1605 – are killing Right Whales in large numbers, a sudden turn of events never suggested until recently. Nonsense.

The argument is lobster lines, which for centuries have dotted offshore Maine, are suddenly a deathly hazard for Right Whales, which until 2010 were endangered but a growing population, rising from 270 in 1990 to 480 in 2010, then gradually slipping back to 360 by 2023.

In an embarrassing rush to judgment, driven by fear that wind power – the holy grail for many – might be fingered for creating ship strikes that are killing Right Whales, national media say Maine’s lobstermen should be tagged for indifference to whales’ wellbeing. False.  

The Washington Post, quick on the draw after a whale – known to be sick – was found dead in Massachusetts with an apparent lobster line in the tail, ran an article entitled “A Dead Whale Raises a Fresh Question: Should You Eat Lobster?” This is so wrong. 

To understand why this is so wrong, one has to return to the days of Ronald Reagan, when he often – good-naturedly but with truth as his goal – would say “Facts are stubborn things.”  They are.

Fact: There is only one instance – since 2004 – of a Right Whale dying by becoming entangled in a Maine lobster line, despite reports of other instances. As with any policy debate, facts matter, and mortality cannot be logically, dis-positively, or unbiasedly tied to lobstering in other cases. 

Fact: North American Right Whales have been oddly dying in larger numbers since 2010, and this is a concern to any who love nature, the oceans, and Right Whales, which most Maine lobstermen do.

Fact: South American Right Whales, facing lobster lines but less pressure from shipping tied to offshore wind farms, are not decreasing in number, but growing by seven to eight percent a year. 

Fact: Maine lobstermen have strived to protect Right Whales with innovations, fewer lines to surface, quick-release lines, and coordination to disentangle whales – rare – when entangled.

Fact: In December 2022, Maine lobstermen were targeted by Democrat activists, apparently aiming to hobble the centuries-old tradition generating 80 percent of America’s lobster; a law to halt that shutdown was postponed to 2028. 

Critical Fact:  The wind turbine industry, subsidized nationally by Democrat majorities in Congress and supported by headstrong wind-turbine activists, does not wish to be blamed for rising Right Whale deaths.

Critical Fact: The first wind turbine in the North Atlantic off Maine was approved in 2008, and became operational in 2013, requiring cross-current shipping for construction and maintenance.

Critical Fact: Right whale numbers were not affected by lobstering before 2010, although ship strikes have been a leading (apparent) cause of whale injury and deaths before and after that date.

To put this in perspective, having spent many years observing Right Whales in the North Atlantic at close quarters, many ship strike injuries to Right Whales have been seen in that time, not one entanglement.

Critical Fact: Right whale numbers began to fall after 2010, in growing numbers as east coast turbines were erected. A “forest of 850-foot-high turbines” was erected in this time. Data is uncontested, incontrovertible, and clear. 

Critical Fact: Wind farms appear to affect phytoplankton, through an effect on upwelling, which in turn may affect Right Whale health, as whales survive on phytoplankton.

Critical Fact: Democrat Governor of Maine Janet Mills approved a “16-square-mile wind farm” off Maine’s Coast,” despite opposition from those affected.

Critical Fact: The national-level (not state-level) Democrat-affiliated wind-power activists who aim to promote wind turbines along Maine’s coast – and blame Maine’s lobstermen for whale deaths, apparently hoping to shut down the trade, have not given up. The proof is the latest attack on lobstermen. 

Bottom Line: Activists who push wind power on Maine’s coast continue to attack Maine lobstermen, trying to use them as a foil.  Second, the proliferation of wind may affect more than whales, also birds, and other species. Third, whoever is Maine’s governor in 2028 holds the industry in their hands, should be very thoughtful. Mainers – and the Nation – should be wary of this stratagem, ends justifying means.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.