Maine lobstermen have gotten a six-year reprieve on new regulations designed to protect North Atlantic right whales, but there’s no exemption for new reporting requirements on their catch.
Until this year, only a fraction of Maine’s lobster fishers were required to report what they caught, including details on when, where and how many. The data went to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a coalition of 15 East Coast states that regulates fishing for more than two dozen species.
But as of Jan. 1, all Maine lobstermen now have to report data on their harvests to the state and to the commission.
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