Oregon crab fishermen are feeling a similar pinch to their Massachusetts lobstermen counterparts as state lawmakers there weigh increased regulations to protect whales.
Humpbacks, which migrate off Oregon’s coast, and other whales can get caught in the vertical ropes connected to the heavy traps and drag them around for months, leaving the mammals injured, starved or so exhausted that they can drown.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission was expected Friday evening to vote on whether to permanently set stricter rules and pot limits put in place in 2020 to protect whales. The restrictions, which were originally supposed to end after this season, would reduce the number of traps, known as pots, and how deep they can drop in the spring and summer months when humpbacks are more likely to encounter them. The commission did not take up the measure that night.
The move comes during a turbulent period as Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery contends with warming oceans, smaller crabs and shortened or canceled seasons due to high levels of an acid that makes the crabs inedible.
The Oregon debate mirrors that of the one in Massachusetts, where lobstermen filed suit against the federal government in February over an emergency closure of fishing grounds that is designed to protect a vanishing species of whale. But they face other pressures in the forms of corporate boycotts, as the Herald has reported.
Lobstermen told the Herald in March that their livelihood is at risk after Monterey Bay Aquarium in California “red-rated” the American lobster in September of last year, prompting the likes of supermarket chain Whole Foods and meal-kit companies HelloFresh and Blue Apron to pull their stock of lobsters. They filed suit against the aquarium.
The red rating on the Seafood Watch means consumers should avoid American lobster caught by trap from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank stocks.
It’s gotten so turbulent, that the former CEO of Legal Seafoods, Roger Berkowitz, swam into the current to toss his support behind the industry.
“Sometimes I think people misconstrue if there is a problem here, it must translate all the way over when that’s not the case,” Berkowitz told the Herald. “There are plenty of fishing grounds and lobster grounds that are perfectly safe for fishermen to harvest product without endangering the whales at all.”
The pressure comes as lobstermen told the Herald they’re also facing lower prices paid at the dock alongside rising fuel-driven expenses.
In Oregon, fish and wildlife authorities say the measures are needed to protect whales and a vibrant economy.
“We’re trying to strike a balance between conservation and recovery of whale populations, which is mandated under federal law, and having a thriving Dungeness crab fishery,” said Troy Buell, head of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife’s State Fishery Management Program.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.