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The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has enacted the New England Fishery Management Council’s Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment, effectively protecting deep-sea corals in an area roughly 25,000 square miles in size.
The fact is also that no documented right whale death has ever been attributed to Maine lobstermen. There has only been one known entanglement in the past 20 years (2012). That whale was disentangled and set free.
The loss of Right whales in the last four years is indeed tragic. After all, the population had grown from an estimated 264 to 481 in an incredibly short time period. From 1990 to 2011, we saw the right whale population rebound and reproduce at rates that pointed to recovery.
No one predicted the movement of the copepods that they depend on for their food source. This scarcity of food and the journey to find it undoubtedly caused excess stress, and contributed heavily to years of slow birth rates.