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To protect lobstermen, spending bill may speed whales’ extinction, activists say

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Lawmakers from Maine have inserted a provision in a massive government funding bill to buffer lobstermen from new regulations, but environmental groups warn it could push the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale to the brink of extinction.
The Post’s Maxine Joselow reports that environmentalists say the provision could sharply curtail the federal government’s ability to prevent right whales from getting entangled in fishing lines used to catch lobsters. But the bipartisan group of Maine lawmakers that pushed to include the provision, known as a policy rider, contend that the government has sought to regulate the state’s lobstermen out of business. Per Maxine:
The language in the legislation released Tuesday sets up a clash over the species’ survival on Capitol Hill just days before government funding runs out at midnight Friday. Congress is racing to pass a set of bills, known as an omnibus, that would fund federal agencies through the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that this rider will doom the right whale to extinction,” said Jane Davenport, a senior attorney at the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife. “Even if you got rid of all other sources of mortality, entanglements with fishing gear alone are enough to drive the species to extinction by reducing births and increasing deaths.”
You can read the full story here.
 
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