Re: “Small island in Gulf of Maine yields huge haul of abandoned fishing gear” (July 26, Page B1):

The article on lobster industry gear trash on Outer Bar Island off Gouldsboro is not an isolated case. There were 230 derelict junk lobster traps on that island with a high-water line perimeter of about 2,400 feet. That is nearly one junk trap per 10 feet of shoreline.

Last summer I went to Seguin Island, off Popham Beach, for the first time to visit the lighthouse. On a side trail, there were five junk traps and multiple balls of nylon rope in less than the 58 feet of shoreline – nearly one trap for every 10 feet of shore.

Mainers like to point to Louisiana and Texas oil industries for destroying their state’s environment and shoreline. Maine is no different, allowing the lobster industry to trash Maine in so many ways.

Lobstermen say, “Right whales don’t get caught in Maine lobster gear.” Yeah, right. One published, peer-reviewed study of available photographs of right whales, taken from 1980 to 2009, found that 83 percent showed evidence of having been entangled in fishing gear at least once.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states that, since 2017, 47 percent of all documented right whale deaths and serious injuries were from fishing gear entanglements. And we are expected to believe that despite all these rope balls and derelict traps on our shore, with the ocean bottom covered in gear, the right whales are magically getting entangled only in Canadian gear.

There should be a $1,000 returnable deposit on every new lobster trap purchase.

Carl Wilcox
New Gloucester

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