A defamation lawsuit filed against a California conservation group that urged consumers to avoid American lobster has been dismissed.
It comes after Maine fishermen pushed back on a decision by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation to place American lobster on its Red List in 2023.
The aquarium cited concerns about endangered North Atlantic right whales becoming entangled in lobster fishing gear.
A federal appeals court dismissed the suit filed by the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, and lobster producers and sellers in the state who said the listing put their livelihoods in jeopardy.
The suit claimed that no right whale deaths had been attributed to entanglement in fishing gear.
In 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association reported that a whale found dead off the coast of Massachusetts died from entanglement in rope that’s used by Maine’s lobster fishery.
In a response, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association said in part:
MLA stands firm in its position that the Aquarium’s red-listing harms the Maine lobster fishery by telling consumers to avoid Maine lobster while ignoring decades of meaningful conservation by the very people who depend on a healthy ocean. Maine lobstermen have a strong record of protecting right whales, and those measures are working. The North Atlantic right whale population is increasing, and documented interactions with Maine lobster gear are rare.
