Lobster feud boils over in Maine

As Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) tries to defend his seat in Maine’s highly competitive second district, a new player has entered the ring: the state’s iconic red crustacean.

A political firestorm erupted in Maine after the research publication Seafood Watch warned consumers to avoid lobster caught off the coast of Maine because of the fishery’s alleged danger to the right whale. The listing caused major retailers like HelloFresh and BlueApron to pull lobster from their menus, and prompted an uproar from the entire Maine delegation, who demanded the listing against their state’s storied industry be rescinded.

Golden, embroiled in an intense battle for reelection, accepted in 2020 a donation of $667 from Julie Packard, the executive director of Seafood Watch and critical donor to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which houses Seafood Watch.

The prickly dispute boiled over this week when one of Golden’s opponents, former Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin, broadsided the incumbent at a recent debate over refusing to return the donation.

“During the debate … Jared Golden refused to return a donation by Julie Packard, the multimillionaire heiress director of anti-lobster group Seafood Watch,” Poliquin’s spokesperson said in a statement from his campaign. “If Jared Golden will not return Seafood Watch's donation, then that tells Maine lobstermen all they need to know about him.”

Asked about the donation, Golden said Poliquin is “pretty desperate if he’s going through FEC reports looking for stuff like this and he finds a $600 check which we weren’t even aware of.”

He also defended the donation, insisting it would go to defending Maine’s lobster fishery.

“I’m not going to give the money back, this woman’s organization is part of this network of nonprofits that are funding these lawsuits against our lobster fishermen,” Golden told POLITICO. “I’ll take every penny she gives me and I’ll give every penny of it to our Maine lobster fisheries legal defense fund.”

The lawsuits Golden is talking about are those brought by various environmental groups under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. District Court for D.C. recently ruled against Maine lobster fishermen and the National Marine Fisheries Services in a case brought by the Center for Biological Diversity. A judge found the regulations for lobster fisheries did not adequately protect the right whale.

Seafood Watch and the Monterey Bay Aquarium say this case is at the center of their evidence that lobster should be avoided.

Seafood Watch claims that the fishing equipment to catch lobsters, traps known as pots, which are dropped into the ocean with rope risk entangling the whales — which can be fatal. But the Maine delegation vehemently refutes this, pointing to the fact that only one non-fatal entanglement attributed to Maine lobstering has occurred since 2004.

“There are 340 North Atlantic right whales left. Seafood Watch reviewed all the available information, which has also been confirmed in federal court as the best available science,” a spokesperson for Seafood Watch said. “The facts make it clear that management has not gone far enough to protect the North Atlantic right whale and a U.S. District Court Judge ruled in July 2022 that all pot/trap and gillnet fisheries in this region with vertical lines in the water are in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said that Seafood Watch’s science is flawed and that the listing is an “overt effort to put thousands of people out of work,” that has “no evidence upon which to impose any penalty, let alone one as drastic as this.”

King suggested his staff is looking into ways to cut off federal funding to the aquarium and Seafood Watch over the listing. He also said he is gathering evidence to propose to Seafood Watch in hopes that they rescind the listing.

“How can I possibly represent the people of Maine and tell them that they should pay their taxes to support an organization that irresponsibly and egregiously has attacked 5,000 or more good people in my state? I can’t do that.” King said in an interview. “So we’re checking to see whether the aquarium or Seafood Watch get any federal money in the way of research or anything like that, and I’ll do whatever I can to cut it off.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.