MAINE, USA — Maine's congressional delegation outlined Wednesday morning the addition of a maximum $500 million appropriation that is aimed to protect Maine lobstermen and women.
Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, Congressional Representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, and Governor Janet Mills all offered their thoughts on the potential expenditure, making it known the lack of funds would have left the lobster industry to suffer.
"Without this provision, it's no exaggeration to say Maine's lobster industry could be facing a complete shutdown, in effect, extinction of the industry and extinction of fishing families," Governor Mills said.
Senator Angus King added that the looming regulations meant "... the lobster industry was sent to economic death."
Senator Susan Collins said she had never seen the congressional delegation be on the same page for something like the lobster industry before.
"This is a victory over common sense... I've never seen a worse case of regulatory overreach and blame an industry that is not at all responsible for a problem," Senator Collins said.
In the proposal, there is a maximum of $50 million dollars that can be spent on towns, fishermen, and researchers every year for ten years. It also includes the pause on all new regulations to the industry for six years.
This all goes back to a federal judge's opinion earlier this year that federal lobster regulations don't do enough to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
Federal regulators were originally set to produce new regulations, potentially mandating ropeless gear and certain area closures, something lobster fishers say would not have been possible to abide by.
Lobstermen have also maintained they don't harm the right whale.
Only one right whale entanglement has been attributed to Maine lobster gear in the last 20 years.
But now those regulations will be workshopped together between lobster groups and environmental groups, and won't be implemented for six years.
During those six years, Maine's congressional delegation hopes to see money go toward new gear for lobstermen, including ropeless technology, and research into the feeding and reproductive habits of the right whale.
For people who purchase, process, and sell lobsters in Maine, the six-year extension is welcome news.
"It's my future just like every captain and crew up and down the coast... possibly being shut down was something we worried about every day," Jillian Robillard, a lobster dealer and processor for Southern Maine Crab in Kittery, said.
The proposal by the Maine delegation is part of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that is expected to be voted through this week.
Senator King said money could make its way to Maine as early as spring.