Maine is synonymous with lobster. So states the federal court defamation lawsuit filed this week by a coalition of lobster fishing companies and trade groups against the Monterey Bay Aquarium over its “Seafood Watch” program, which accused Maine fisheries of falsely putting North Atlantic right whales at significant risk of entanglement and risk of extinction. Bean Maine Lobster, Inc., et al. v. Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, No. 2:23-cv-00129 (JAW)(D. Maine).

The aquarium’s Seafood Watch program assigns ratings to varieties of seafood based on environmental impact and sustainability. In September of 2022, Seafood Watch published a “red” rating for lobster caught in certain Canadian and U.S. fisheries. Seafood Watch’s current red, “avoid” rating instructs the public to “take a pass on these for now. They’re caught or farmed in ways that harm marine life or the environment.” The aquarium’s rating, allegedly based on “all scientific data,” claimed that lobster fishing practices in the stated region (specifically, pot, trap and gillnet fisheries) pose “significant risks of entanglement” to North Atlantic right whales and that the fisheries are putting the species “at risk of extinction” and therefore could not be considered “sustainable.” The Gulf of Maine is the center of the U.S. lobster industry.

Plaintiffs allege that Seafood Watch changed lobsters’ sustainability from “yellow” (good alternative) to “red” (avoid), despite evidence that Maine’s lobster industry had...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiU2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmxleG9sb2d5LmNvbS9s...