{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/an-economic-death-sentence-averted-king-champions-provision-to-pause-lobster-gear-regulations-on-senate-floor", "\u201cAn Economic Death Sentence\u201d Averted, King Champions Provision To Pause Lobster Gear Regulations on Senate Floor", "2022-12-21", "2022", "2022-12", "Independent", "Senate", "ME", "Angus S. King, Jr.", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", "angusking", "https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/table", "scraper", "Watch Senator King\u2019s full floor speech HERE and download broadcast quality HERE.\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Angus King today delivered remarks from the Senate Floor on the importance of Maine\u2019s lobster fishery to the state\u2019s communities and the devastating implications that proposed lobster gear regulations would have on thousands of Maine families and small businesses. In his speech, King lays out the lack of evidence backing the arbitrary regulations and explains how the six-year regulatory pause secured by Maine Congressional Delegation and Governor Mills in the annual omnibus spending bill will avert an \u201ceconomic death sentence\u201d for the state.\n\nEarlier today, the Maine Congressional Delegation and Governor Mills released a joint statement HERE announcing the successful inclusion of the regulatory pause into the annual spending bill. The bill is expected to be passed and signed into law later this week.\n\nKing began his remarks by laying out the serious crisis facing the Maine lobstering community and the state\u2019s economy.\n\n\u201cMy state is facing its most serious crisis, in my view, in my 18 years of public service on behalf of Maine. There is a provision in the bill that we'll be voting on tomorrow that is of vital, critical importance to Maine and I believe the country,\u201d began Senator King. \u201cIn November, a federal court here in Washington issued a ruling under the Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection Acts that effectively shuts down the entire Maine lobster fishery in two years. It issues requirements that simply can't be met in that time frame. The only choice will be to shut down the fishery.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat does that mean? What is the fishery? What is the lobster industry? The lobster industry is this guy right here \u2013 thousands of small, independent businesses. These boats aren't owned by Amazon or Walmart or Whole Foods. They're owned by individual people, families, generations in a town like this. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about the livelihoods of thousands of Maine people that will be cut off by virtue of this decision within two years.\n\n\u201cIs it a real threat? People are already canceling orders for boat. The business of the people that make lobster traps is down 25% or 30%. People are starting to put their boat on the market because they see this closure coming of an industry that's been a mainstay of the Maine economy for 150 years,\u201d explained Senator King. \u201cWell over a billion and a half dollars a year is based upon this unique, iconic product that comes from the cold waters of Maine.\u201d\n\nContinuing his remarks, King explains how the crisis is based on faulty premises that ignores the data in Maine waters.\n\n\u201cThis decision of the court that effectively closes our lobster industry down is based upon the idea of protecting the North Atlantic right whale \u2013 which needs protection, it is indeed an endangered species. The question is whether the remedy, in this case the closure of the Maine fishery, will actually help in the preservation of the right whale,\u201d continued Senator King.\n\n\u201cI want to start with a couple of data points. Here's the first. This is the number of right whale deaths ever attributed to Maine lobster gear: zero. Here's another data point. The number of right whales even being entangled in Maine lobster gear in almost the last 20 years: zero,\u201d Senator King exclaimed. \u201cSo the question is, is there sufficient evidence for this draconian remedy, the shutdown of the entire industry?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe other data point is that according to the maps of whale sightings based upon data from the Department of Commerce and NOAA, the whales are moving away from Maine.\u201d\n\nKing continues by highlighting the lack of evidence on which the \u201ceconomic death sentence\u201d is based.\n\n\u201cSo we're talking about an economic death sentence for an entire way of life, for the town of Stonington, for the thousands and I mean between 5,000 and 10,000 people who work on the water and thousands more that work in processing and involved in this industry, over a billion and a half dollars a year of economic impact in the state of Maine.\n\n\u201cIf you were in court and you said we're going to impose an economic death sentence, well, here's the way the law looks at things like that. If it's a criminal case to take away somebody's liberty beyond a reasonable doubt. No beyond a reasonable doubt in this case. It's not even close to beyond a reasonable doubt,\u201d emphasized Senator King. \u201cIn a civil case you have to prove your case by a preponderance of the evidence. Is there a preponderance of evidence that fishery is contributing to the loss of right whales? No, there's no preponderance of evidence. How about any evidence? Zero. Zero.\u201d\n\nKing goes on to explain how the provision authored by the Maine Delegation and Governor Mills will support the Maine lobster industry.\n\n\u201cNow, a solution to this crisis is in the bill that we'll be voting on tomorrow. It's one that the Maine Delegation, myself and Senator Collins, Congresswoman Pingree, Congressman Golden have been working on since this decision,\u201d Senator King continued. \u201cWhat it is a compromise that's been negotiated between the various people interested in this issue in this body.\u201d\n\n\u201cImportantly, it provides funding for two purposes. One is the development of gear that will reduce the risk even further,\u201d explained Senator King. \u201cThe other funding is for data to know where the whales are. To know because the problem is, would data we have indicates there are practically none along the Maine coast. But we don't know that for sure.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe third thing it does is pause the economic death sentence. It pauses the ruling that says this has to be finished in two years because that means the industry, the lobster fishing, the lobster families, the lobster towns are finished within two years. We're talking about a six-year pause as time to collect the data and develop the gear,\u201d concluded King. \u201cSo what we're doing, what we compromise was a six-year period that will give us time to develop the technology and to develop the data and we may find that there are different solutions or that the data may show no additional restrictions beyond what is already being done are necessary.\u201d\n\nConcluding his remarks, King emphasizes that this is not a choice between conservation and the lobster industry, and that the bill will protect both in a sensible way.\n\n\u201cWe don't have to choose between lobsters and whales. We don't have to choose between the men and women of Stonington or Cutler or Corea or Georgetown or Freeport or Cape Elizabeth and whales. We just have to be sensible about approaching this in a way that will protect the whales but also protect the way of life of these wonderful people.\n\n\u201cThat's why I'm here tonight. That's what we've done in this bill. It is in no way a diminution of the standards of the Endangered Species Act or the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It merely pauses that economic death sentence until we have time to know how to navigate the solution and what the real definition of the problem is,\u201d concluded Senator King. \u201cTo me, that's good policy. It's what we should do here on all the complicated issues we face.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:32:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/an-economic-death-sentence-averted-king-champions-provision-to-pause-lobster-gear-regulations-on-senate-floor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3495259918272495, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}