By Aaron Porter

This dead right whale was spotted by a federal aerial survey team off Cape Cod in December. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NORTHEAST FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER

Originally triggered by the sighting of seven whales last month, the DAM is located as close as 15 miles south of Isle au Haut. Its inshore boundary runs east from there, nearly to the Hague Line, which delineates the Canada/U.S. border.

Within the zone, lobstermen and gillnet fishermen are required to use sinking or neutrally buoyant line for groundlines and the upper portions of buoy lines. Lobstermen may use two buoys per trawl, and each buoy must be attached by a weak link with a maximum breaking strength of 1,500 pounds.

The original DAM was in effect from Dec. 22 through Jan. 5.

During that time there were few complaints from fishermen, according to Diane Borggaard, large whale coordinator for the service. Maine Lobstermen’s Association executive director Patrice McCarron said she’s heard nothing from lobstermen in the area. But she said she’s not surprised, either. The DAM is far enough offshore that only lobstermen with federal permits would be affected anyway. In addition, most fishermen have pulled their gear for the winter.

On Jan. 4, the latest sighting of more than twice as many whales in the area prompted federal whale experts to revive the DAM through Jan. 29.

While the restrictions come during the winter when interference with fishing is least likely, they also follow a spate of right whale deaths along the East Coast.

The National Marine Fisheries Service reports that during the past two months, four right whales have been found dead along the Atlantic coastline. Last week, one was spotted off the Georgia coast and another on the waters off Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. In December, a pregnant female right whale was found washed up on a North Carolina beach. Another right whale was spotted off Cape Cod, Mass., on Dec. 15.

That sort of death toll is a blow to the scant population of endangered right whales.

According to the fisheries service, there are about 325 of the large whales left, making them one of the most-endangered large whale species worldwide.

Primarily, ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement are cited as the leading human causes of right whale deaths. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service recorded at least one unexplained beaching of a right whale calf in 2004. Records indicate that at least two right whales were killed as a result of ship strikes in 2004.

The role of shipping in right whale deaths has particularly bothered fishermen in the past. At a series of public meetings conducted by the fisheries service in 2003, lobstermen expressed their frustration that unexplained deaths often were automatically attributed to entanglement in fishing gear. While that practice has changed, whale entanglement still looms as a threat to Maine’s thriving lobster fishery, and results in measures such as the recent DAMs.

David Gouveia, marine mammal coordinator with the fisheries service, said the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, which contains the current DAM requirements and other prophylactic measures intended to protect the endangered whales, is soon to change. He said proposed changes to the plan will be published this winter.

According to Gouveia, the proposed changes, which were originally slated for publication a year ago, will include six alternative plans.

The fisheries service will include analysis of all six alternative ways to meet the conservation objectives, and state which alternative is preferred.

“This is a more comprehensive analysis than we’ve ever done before on the whale plan,” Gouveia said.

Following publication, the alternatives will be the subject of a series of public hearings in coastal New England.

One of the possible alternatives explored by the service was the demarcation of a coastal line, inside of which gear alterations would not be required because endangered whale rarely travel there. Gouveia didn’t confirm whether that idea, which would ease the concerns of Maine’s coastal lobstermen, was left among the final six alternatives.