Posted on 11/29/2022 9:03:30 AM PST by Red Badger
Whole Foods angered elected officials by announcing its plans to cease buying Maine lobsters after climate change groups downgraded the North Atlantic fishing area’s sustainability rating.
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills and its Congressional delegation sent a note to Whole Foods expressing their “disappointment” in the grocery store giant’s decision to stop buying Maine lobsters, according to the official letter Nov. 22. Whole Foods made the decision after the organizations (Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch) it uses to determine its sustainability ratings downgraded Maine lobster to “the worst rating,” reported The New York Times.
“We are disappointed by Whole Foods’ decision and deeply frustrated that the Marine Stewardship Council’s suspension of the lobster industry’s certificate of sustainability continues to harm the livelihoods of hardworking men and women up and down Maine’s coast,” the Maine officials stated.
The statement cited the “150-year history of sustainability” as proof that Maine fishermen have “consistently demonstrated their commitment to protecting right whales” and denounced the accusations that right whale deaths can be attributed to Maine fishery.
“Despite this, the Marine Stewardship Council, with retailers following suit, wrongly and blindly decided to follow the recommendations of misguided environmental groups rather than science,” the letter continued. “We strongly urge the Marine Stewardship Council and retailers to reconsider their potentially devastating decisions.”
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) suspended its sustainability certificate for Maine lobster on Nov. 16, claiming to have concerns that fishermen’s nets and other gear were entangling North Atlantic right whales, endangering the population. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cited that boats and fishing gear account for the leading causes of North Atlantic right whale deaths, reported The New York Times. According to the most recent audit of the Maine lobster fishery certification, MSC found no evidence that the North Atlantic lobster fishery was responsible for “entanglements or interactions with right whales.”
I find it really hard to see how a whale can get entangled in a line to a lobster pot.
“..I have read that giant lobsters aren’t fit to eat. That their meat is tough and chewy and not sweet tasting at all.........”
The 1-1.5 lb ones (we call em chicken lobsters) are the best for boiling/eating.
Those larger ones can get tough, but the meat from those can be chopped up to make lobster salad for lobster rolls....kinda like tun salad.
Makes me hungry just thinking about it....LOL
But the really really big ones, are very old and tough. Kinda like an old cow..................
Mills is in on it by way of a backdoor which is NOT filing a lawsuit by the State. She is the worst of the worst.
“..Not for the Maine fisherman!....lowest dock prices in ages.....”
Yep. What we paid in 2020 for six real nice boilers, we bought 10 of em this past summer for the same price. Got em right off the dock in Cutler, Maine.
I would.
This communist governor probably funds and supports these groups. She is also a green new deal type. She deserves this. Whole Foods is right. Wouldn’t want to harm the earth ya know!
If Whole Foods buys those lobsters, then the greens will picket their stores, gripe and bitch, and assail them with boycott threats.
Whole foods is supposed to take the abuse... they deflected it back onto the governor. I think it’s funny.
“..they deflected it back onto the governor. I think it’s funny....”
Yep. The communist beotch deserves everything coming at her...all of it.
Whadda POS...and won’t even file a lawsuit on behalf of the State of Maine.
IF it weren’t for the out-of-state influx, the POS would never been elected there.
Id say Oregon needs more laws... not Maine
Spiny Lobsters are a VERY poor substitute for dem Maine bugs!
you may have gotten them off a relative there ...lol
The following article is more than 1 year old.
Maine’s lobster fishers caught up in fierce fight with conservationists over entangled whales
Excerpt:
“When they encounter a vertical line that’s in the water, there’s a buoy on the surface and then there’s a string of up to twenty traps on the seafloor … [The whales] generally can’t see the ropes and it’s very violent. The whale will thrash in the water and at the surface, trying to escape,” said Gib Brogan, a fisheries campaign manager at Oceana, an international ocean conservation group.
Ropes entangling the whales can dig into their flesh, and wrap around their mouths, preventing them from feeding, breeding and socializing, Brogan said. . Entangled whales, especially young calves, may drown if they cannot reach the surface; others die slowly of starvation.
“What the government is saying is that [the Gulf of Maine] may not be an aggregation area. [Rather] it may be a pathway as the whales are migrating from either the eastern Gulf of Maine or the Gulf of St Lawrence … This is a time and place where a lot of whales are using this as their habitat … which have a lot of functions. It can be a breeding, feeding and socializing area,” Brogan said.
Noaa has appealed Walker’s order, arguing that the lobster unions and dealers failed to provide evidence of irreparable harm that the closure of the waters would have on them. It also argued that the lobstering bodies did not provide hard evidence that the closure would result in economic havoc.
Over the years, ropeless fishing has been promoted as an alternative to lobstermen that would pose less risk to whales. Instead of using the traditional lines that connect traps on the seafloor to a buoy, ropeless traps can be raised to the surface by remote control.
However, the industry has not yet widely embraced this method, with many such as Olsen citing ropeless fishing’s availability, cost and safety as major concerns. A ropeless trap costs about $4,000, while a traditional lobster trap costs between $80 and $180.”
Lobster fisherman are dealing with the same inflation costs that is affecting everything else you buy. Their boats run on commercial diesel, just like any other ship or farm tractor.
Their bait, equipment, boats, gear, licenses, etc have all gone up in price.
It’s more a matter of the west coast having far more whales. There are fewer than 400 Northern Right Whales left. I would expect far fewer interactions, wouldn’t you? With a million static lines on lobster traps, 625,000 in US waters, Right and Sperm Whales are threatened.
Janet Mills has never in her life worked in the private sector and usually chooses against the wishes of the private sector. She singlehandedly destroyed businesses across her state with her draconian covid policies. No Mainer believes she actually cares about the lobstermen.
Whole Paycheck is a dreadful store in many ways.
In our small city, we have Natural Grocer, a US-wide chain, that has all the good expensive stuff at relatively reasonable prices. And items on sale every week. They only have pasture-raised eggs, the only eggs I’ll eat, and have at least one brand on sale every week for $1.99. Elsewhere they’re $6. At Whole Paycheck probably more than that.
Also you would agree that whatever that is that whale got into coulda come from anywhere right?
By no means is there proof that came from an American fishing boat/fleet much less that its lobster gear.
i’ve never seen the point of trying to shop at WF ... their produce quality here is awful and double every other store ... roasted chickens are cooked WAY better at Sam’s Wholesale next door and WAY less expensive ... even Walmart carries good brands of hypoallergenic detergents for half the price of WF ... WF aisles are filled with weird little jars of weird stuff that ordinary mortals don’t need and wouldn’t know what to do with anyway ...
Pretty sure they require some form of ID on a lot of that gear, for that very reason.
WF is the answer to the questions nobody asked..............Ought to call it WEIRD Foods................
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