Lobstermen Ask D.C. Circuit to Toss ‘Presumptuous’ Whale Study

Lobstermen industry groups asked the D.C. Circuit at oral argument Friday to reverse a lower court ruling that sided with federal regulators, who imposed harsher fishing restrictions in order to reduce right whale entanglement and death.

“The biological opinion used worst case scenarios, not the best scientifically available data,” Paul D. Clement, a Clement & Murphy attorney representing the the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, told the judges. “It’s a pretty serious invasion of the Endangered Species Act and how it’s supposed to work.”

There isn’t any evidence that Maine’s lobstermen are a threat to right whales, the lobstermen’s association claimed. According ...