Maine’s lobster industry can proceed with a defamation lawsuit that it brought against a seafood watchdog group, which had placed a do-not-buy designation on the crustaceans because of the dangers it said that the industry’s fishing nets posed to an endangered whale species.
A federal judge last month denied a motion to have the case dismissed, drawing an appeal on Thursday from the group Seafood Watch, a nonprofit run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium that publishes seafood sustainability ratings.
It has been nearly two years since the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and several other plaintiffs sued the nonprofit after it downgraded the sustainability rating for American lobsters caught off Maine from yellow to red in 2022. The nonprofit advised consumers to avoid those lobsters, saying that endangered North Atlantic right whales were at significant risk of becoming entangled in fishing gear.
The fishermen blamed Seafood Watch in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Maine, for damaging the reputation of the billion-dollar industry and prompting some of their customers to cancel contracts.
“Reputation and goodwill cannot be adequately replaced through awarding damages and this injury lingers as long as the ‘red listing’ does,” Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. wrote in the 137-page order denying the motion to dismiss the case.
The fishermen applauded the judge’s ruling in a statement, having argued in the lawsuit that the average price per pound of lobster dropped by 40 percent after Seafood Watch changed its sustainability rating.
“This ruling is a crucial step in holding the Monterey Bay Aquarium accountable for misleading statements that have unfairly targeted our industry,” Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said in a statement. “Maine lobstermen have been stewards of the ocean for generations, and we are committed to defending our livelihood against baseless claims.”
In a statement mentioning that it was appealing the ruling, the Monterey Bay Aquarium said that the lawsuit should be dismissed under a Maine law that was intended to defend against frivolous lawsuits that stymie free speech.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries estimated that there are about 370 North Atlantic right whales remaining, making it one of the world’s most endangered whale species. The number of new calves born in recent years has been below average, according to NOAA.
The primary threats to the whales, which can weigh up to 140,000 pounds and measure up to 52 feet in length, are vessel strikes and fishing gear entanglements.
At the time that Seafood Watch placed its do-not-buy designation on Maine lobsters, the nonprofit said that the red rating was based on “significant risks of entanglement in pot, trap, and gillnet fisheries to the endangered North Atlantic right whale and the lack of timely, effective management necessary to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species.”
The fishermen who sued the nonprofit argued that Maine’s lobster industry had taken steps to modify gear, and that Seafood Watch’s rating was based on outdated and irrelevant data. Three days after the rating was announced, the governor of Maine and its congressional delegation sent a letter to the aquarium asking it to reverse the designation.