In a joint letter to NOAA Fisheries, the senators representing the U.S. state of Maine asked NOAA Fisheries to pay attention to the concerns of lobstermen over ropeless gear implementation.
“Maine lobstermen’s concerns about ropeless gear are well-documented and deserve serious consideration,” the senators said. “It is important to give full and meaningful weight to concerns raised by fishermen regarding ropeless/on-demand fishing gear as NMFS’ core strategy for North Atlantic right whale conservation.”
Ropeless gear – which eliminates the vertical lines that threaten whale entanglement by holding buoys on the seafloor until activated and released by a lobsterman – has been touted by conservation and sustainability groups as a technological solution that allows commercial fishers and whales to share the same space with a lower risk of entanglement.
With only about 384 of the whales left in existence, there have been many calls for increased regulation to reduce entanglement risk. That concern peaked in a 2021 biological opinion that used worst-case scenarios to determine the threat posed by commercial lobster gear, resulting in NOAA Fisheries moving to impose more stringent regulations on the fishery.
A lawsuit brought by Maine lobstermen resulted in a court vacating the 2021 biological opinion, but the close call has led to wariness from Maine lobstermen about regulatory action and the introduction of ropeless gear. In 2022, Maine lawmakers were able to secure a six-year regulatory pause for the lobster fishery. Since then, Congress has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars into research and technology to help reduce right whale entanglements.
In a joint letter to NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñero Soler, U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) warned regulators that the lobster industry continues to have strong opposition to mandatory ropeless gear.
“As you are aware, industry groups including the New England Fisherman’s Stewardship Association and the Maine Lobstermen’s Association have consistently and publicly shared their serious concerns about a required transition to ropeless gear as the primary management strategy to avoid conflicts with North Atlantic right whales,” the senators said. “We urge you continue to explore other options such as Dynamic Area Management with the Maine Department of Marine Resources and strongly encourage you to continue engaging fishermen directly as your agency approaches new rulemaking on this issue.”
Collins and King did express some support for ropeless gear testing, highlighting the work of the Maine Innovative Gear Library (MIGL), which works with 33 participants to test innovative gear in the Maine lobster fishery.
“While the sample size is small and does not inform the scalability of the technology, it is meaningful progress and speaks to the industry’s willingness to engage and provide critical feedback to NMFS that should be taken into consideration. MIGL expects to publish its full results later in 2026,” the senators noted.
However, the lawmakers said preliminary interviews with lobstermen suggested ropeless gear wasn’t ready for wider adoption.
“Initial data and interviews with lobstermen indicate that substantial issues must be resolved before this technology is suitable for broad implementation in Maine’s fishery. Notably, the lobster industry has raised a number of concerns with this technology, which is an important part of what the Maine DMR is documenting and assessing through this work,” the senators noted.
Increased costs and trip time were the biggest concerns cited in the letter.
In September 2025, U.S. Representative Jared Golden (D-Maine) expressed opposition to mandated ropeless gear in a letter to the New England Fishery Management Council.
