EXCLUSIVE: Maine’s Democratic Representative Jared Golden criticized the Biden administration for attacking his state’s lobster industry with environmental regulations while ignoring the environmental impacts of offshore wind projects.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Golden said the federal government has detained Maine lobstered to an unfair standard about their impact on the endangered North Atlantic whale species compared to how it has treated offshore wind developers and other ocean-based industries. He added that the government’s actions were aimed at appeasing environmental groups who have similarly targeted lobstering.
“The hypocrisy part is what pisses me off, because we know that real whales, other whales, get hit by cargo ships all the time. Cruise ships driving people around hit them,” he told Fox News Digital. “You see very little effort from the federal government to do anything.”
“And yet they see a small lobster fishery in Maine that is not politically important to them and they are trying to destroy it to prove to environmental groups that they are actively trying to protect the real whales,” he continued.
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Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is pictured at a congressional hearing on March 6, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
In recent years, federal agencies have attempted to crack down on Maine’s lobster fishing despite scant evidence of whale strikes. However, lobster industry groups have pointed to federal records showing that there has never been a recorded whale death in Maine due to lobster fishing equipment and that the last recorded whale entanglement in fishing gear was more than two decades ago.
Industry groups and lawmakers, including Golden, have also said the rules, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) first rolled out in May 2022 with more for 2024 and 2030, would put thousands of worker jobs at risk. Maine’s lobster industry — which, by state law, consists entirely of small business owners — supplies the U.S. with approximately 90% of the nation’s lobster supply, giving the industry a economic top engine in the state, as well as boosting other related industries.
At the same time, the government has repeatedly defended offshore wind projects in recent months despite an unprecedented rise in whale deaths and widespread calls for a moratorium on offshore wind development until the deaths are further investigated. Since December, more than 20 whale deaths have been recorded along the East Coast, most of them in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, where major wind projects are under development.
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“Am I concerned about hypocrisy in the federal government’s handling of, say, Maine’s lobster fishery as opposed to major energy projects?” Gold continued. “The answer is 100% yes, because for four years I have been constantly harassing the federal government to show us one piece of evidence that the Maine lobster fishery is responsible for any kind of whale entanglement, let alone the death of a judge whale.”
“They can’t show data collected in the field,” he said. “All they have are these computer-driven formulas that show risk, even though it’s been almost 20 years since there was a whale entanglement associated with the Maine lobster fishery. Despite the complete lack of data, they’ve been trying to almost regulate that fishery. ” of business.”
Maine lobster fishermen bring in their latest catch off the state’s coast. (Maine Lobstermen’s Association/Marketing Collaborative)
Last week, Golden joined Reps. Jeff Van Drew, RN.J., Chris Smith, RN.J., and Andy Harris, R-Md., who wrote a letter to federal officials demanding more information about the risks offshore wind projects pose to marine life. They noted that wind leases cover more than 1.7 million acres of water along the Atlantic coast, a vast area that will become a major wind turbine construction zone over the next decade.
The letter also highlighted a 2022 internal memo from Sean Hayes, NOAA’s chief of protected species, which stated that “oceanographic effects from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated” and would particularly impact the dwindling whale population.
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“Development and deployment of offshore wind is a consistent national endeavor, therefore our approach must be done correctly the first time, with full consideration to mitigate negative impacts on marine species such as the North Atlantic right whale,” the letter concluded.
In addition, Golden directed his anger at environmental groups that have continued attacks on Maine’s lobster industry. Last year, the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has taken pledges from companies like Blue Apron, Cheesecake Factory, Hello Fresh and Whole Foods, downgraded Maine lobster from “good alternative” to “avoid,” citing the risks involved. the state’s fisheries provide endangered North Atlantic right whales.
An endangered North Atlantic right whale was photographed on the beach in Virginia Beach, Virginia, last month. It was the third dead whale found miles from an operational offshore wind farm in less than a week (WAVY TV/video screenshot)
“I introduced a bill last year to try and take away all of their federal funding because their claim that Maine’s lobster fishery is unsustainable because of whales is not based on science,” the Maine Democrat told Fox News Digital.
“If they’re going to be a scientific organization that’s going to receive federal research dollars, then they should be putting real science out there,” he added. “It’s just more bulls — coming out of these groups I think — it has more to do with their fundraising circles and it’s a real insular group of people.”
“They go in and out of administrations, they work in NOAA, they leave NOAA, they go to work in these aquariums, etc.,” Golden said.
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While the Monterey Bay Aquarium maintains its “avoid” red list of Maine’s lobster fishery, under pressure from Golden, his fellow Maine congressional delegates, state leaders and industry groups have passed a bill that would prohibit the government from introducing additional regulations targeting the lobster industry for six years was included in the appropriations package that President Biden signed late last year.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.