100 signatures reached
To: Beth Casoni, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association
Save Right Whales: Test Ropeless Gear Now!
Ropeless gear is the way of the future and will stop right whale deaths. The equipment is available: the MLA should test ropeless gear this season before another whale dies and the species is extinct.
Why is this important?
The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered species that is dying at an extreme rate. There are less than 400 in existence, and 2% of the population has died off this summer.
As we write, four whales are entangled in fishing gear.
One whale, an 18-year-old male, was found entangled in a lethal 300 feet of rope. The rope had pinned the whale’s right flipper to his body, his mouth was wired shut, his baleen was sticking out of his mouth and therefore he could not feed.
This is egregious and wrong. It's time for us to adopt ropeless gear as a solution to this easily solvable problem. Lobstermen should not use technology from the 1800s to fish in the 21st century.
The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has paved the way to allow lobstermen to band together for ocean conservation while maintaining the economic interest of its members.
We call on the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association to test ropeless gear as the North American right whales are dying at a critical rate.
They must test and implement ropeless gear in order to stand by their ethos of supporting “the interdependence of species conservation” and embracing the new technology that was created to save these whales.