The Sept. 6, 2022 Monterey Aquarium/Seafood Watch American Lobster Report issued a “Red” rating and recommend avoiding trapped lobsters from the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southern New England due to insufficient measures to reduce North Atlantic right whale “entanglements.”

However, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data does not support the accusation.

NOAA Fisheries’ North Atlantic right whale death and entanglement data (April 2017 to April 2024) includes the location of each death and entanglement. The Seafood Watch report implies all the incidents occurred in U.S. lobster fishing areas, and all events had gear present. NOAA Fisheries’ report reveals:

• 40 whales “dead” (gear was found present in four of the incidents).
• 85 whales “entangled” (gear was reported present in none of the incidents).

Seafood Watch only refers to the areas of the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and southeast New England, but when you sort NOAA Fisheries’ data by locations, you get a different picture.

The Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank account for zero deaths and eight entanglements (16%), with no gear reported. This area accounts for 95% of all U.S. lobster landings and associated vertical lines, with no gear reported for all events.

For years, the North Atlantic right whales and other filter feeding marine life enjoyed feeding on swimming copepods and krill around the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy. In 2015-16, a shift in ocean currents caused the copepods, krill and herring to move to the cooler waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, and the North Atlantic right whales and filter feeding fish followed.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence accounts for 21 (54%) of the total North Atlantic right whale deaths and 33 (40%) of entanglements and 0% of all U.S. lobster landings. NOAA Fisheries and Seafood Watch quietly refer to this as a UME (unusual mortality event).

Around 2017, the Gulf of St. Lawrence farmed salmon industry started to increase farmed salmon production by increasing cage density. Simultaneously, a current shift in the Gulf of St. Lawrence increased the water temps and lowered the seawater oxygen levels. These changes significantly increased the stress on salmon. The stress of the warmer waters created a perfect environment for the reproduction of parasitic sea lice (parasitic copepods). The warmer waters also allowed the parasites to live longer and travel farther to find a host, including wild salmon.

Both the swimming (good) and parasitic (bad) copepods are crustaceans. The salmon farmers combated the lice by increasing pesticides to kill the lice. Note that sea lice reproduction and the time to find a host doubles with every 6-degree C. rise in seawater temperature. Pesticides kill or poison both the good and bad copepods. During this three-year period, the North Atlantic right whales, herring, shrimp, wild salmon, krill, lobsters, crabs, leatherback turtles (via jellyfish), shellfish, birds and other sea life in the Gulf of St. Lawrence food chain were consuming the contaminated copepods.

Note that Seafood Watch did not mention:

• Between 2016 and 2019 there were 6,450,000 farmed salmon deaths and 443,000 pounds of pesticides dumped directly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to combat sea lice.
• When you look at the Maine herring landings between 2017 and 2019 you see a steep landing drop-off that coincides with the pesticide usage.
• Between 2017 and 2019, NOAA Fisheries data reveals a direct correlation between pesticide increases, North Atlantic right whale deaths, entanglements, ship strikes and decrease in calving.

Seafood Watch attributed the herring stock decline to overfishing of the lobster bait industry. The reality was, the herring followed their favorite food (copepods) to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The filter feeding herring swam through the Gulf of St. Lawrence’s pesticide-saturated waters consuming poisoned copepods and subsequently dying. The herring stock is being diminished by the pesticides, not the overfishing.

Additionally, Seafood Watch neglected to mention the southern New England windmills. NOAA has been giving wind farm lease holders in Massachusetts and Rhode Island exceptions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, aka “take permits.”

The majority of North Atlantic right whale deaths and entanglements occur outside U.S. lobster fishing areas. Meanwhile, nongovernmental organizations like Seafood Watch are ignoring other major factors and operations, like offshore wind energy development, that have a much larger impact on North Atlantic right whales and their food chain.

Leo LaRosa of Rose Solutions Inc. in Gloucester, Massachusetts, has spent almost 20 years working and studying the global lobster industry.