More On: Maine lobster
Restaurant owners were upset that Maine lobster was put on a list of seafood to 'avoid'
This is not how to make the people of Maine like you.
The claws are out in the New England state after an environmental group put the area's famous lobsters on a list of seafood to "avoid" because their harvest is said to put whales in danger.
The decision by the Monterey Bay Aquarium's environmental seafood watch program to put the tasty crustacean on a "red list" made state officials very angry.
US Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) yelled to The Post, "This is an outrageous act with real-world consequences and no real scientific evidence." "It's so annoying."
Industry representatives and restaurant owners, like the owners of popular lobster roll places in New York City and the Hamptons, also said the list can go to shell.
Fred Terry, co-owner of the Lobster Roll in Southampton, said, "It's not well-researched." "A right whale could break the line of any lobster trap in Maine and go right through it."
Terry, who is also a director of the New York State Restaurant Association, said, "They're putting Maine lobster fishing in with snow crab fishing and king crab fishing." "There are probably the most rules about the domestic lobster market than any other."
King also used Twitter to criticize the aquarium, which said that the endangered right whale could get caught in fishing and lobster-catching gear.
"[It's] just crazy and goes against common sense. "The Maine lobster industry, one of our state's most important economic drivers and a source of pride, has long been committed to environmentally friendly, sustainable fishing," he said in a statement posted on social media.
"There hasn't been a whale caught in Maine lobster gear since 2004, and there has never been a documented death of a right whale because of Maine lobster gear," he said. "I hope that the millions of people around the world who like the tasty crustacean will see through this hoax."
The report from the group says that you shouldn't eat it because right whales could get caught in the "vertical lines associated with lobster gear."
But it doesn't say how many right whales have died or been hurt because of lobster fishing.
"Due to a lack of information, it is often not possible to link entanglements to a specific fishery," the report says. "Documented entanglements with pot or trap gear or unidentified gear from 2015 to 2019 are all linked to unknown fisheries, which may include the lobster fishery."
Some restaurants in New York City said they have no plans to take special dishes like lobster rolls off their menus.
The owner of Red Hook Lobster Pound, Susan Povich, told The Post that she has no plans to change the No. 1 most-ordered item on the restaurant's menu.
"I really hope that this designation is changed, because the lobster industry supports thousands of independent fishermen who, in turn, support tens of thousands of jobs in Maine and hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country."
When asked if the designation would change prices, she said, "If anything, prices will go down."
The Monterey Bay Aquarium says that it makes the list, which has labels like "best choice" and "avoid," based on a scientific evaluation of how fishing is done in the US and Canada.
The group's Seafood Watch list ranks fisheries based on how they affect the environment, how fair their working conditions are, and how they help the economy along the supply chain.
The list is meant to help restaurants and other places that sell seafood choose seafood that is good for the environment. A request for comment from the group was not answered right away.
