PORTLAND, Maine — Editor's note: This video originally aired May 1, 2022.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins halted a nominee's potential appointment to a federal post over objections to rules designed to protect rare whales.
Collins cited new regulations on her state's lobster fishing industry that she described as “onerous.” The rules restrict commercial lobster harvesting and are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales from entanglement in gear.
Collins stopped a vote Wednesday about the confirmation of Jainey Kumar Bavishi as assistant secretary of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, Maine Public reported. NOAA is the federal agency that regulates oceans and fisheries.
The new restrictions include a rule that requires lobster fishermen to install weak links in gear that allow whales to break free. Collins and other Maine politicians called on NOAA to delay the implementation of the rules earlier this spring because the gear was not available to many lobster fishermen.
They said one of the rules, which requires weak points in lobster lines, is essentially impossible for fishers to comply with at this time.
NOAA said that because of supply shortages affecting the global market, including new breakaway ropes, they wouldn't enforce the new laws when they took effect on May 1 but would institute gradual enforcement, increasing penalties as supply issues are resolved.
The U.S. lobster fishing industry is based largely in Maine and Massachusetts. Maine's lobster industry set a record $725 million for the total value of lobsters brought to the docks in 2021.
Several protected zones off the East Coast designed to aid the rare whales are also set to expire in the coming days. The zones are voluntary slow zones meant to prevent the North Atlantic right whales from colliding with ships.
The whales have suffered high mortality in recent years, and ship collisions are another of the significant threats they face.