East Coast lobstermen drop lawsuit against Monterey Bay Aquarium for telling people to stop eating lobster

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has ended its fight against a California aquarium that says people shouldn’t buy and eat lobster because of the risks the fishery poses on the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

A federal judge in the Northern District of California on Monday dismissed a class action lawsuit that four Bay State lobstermen filed last March against the Monterey Bay Aquarium after the two sides agreed to end the months-long dispute with prejudice.

Monterey Bay in September 2022 gave the American lobster a “red rating” on its Seafood Watch, recommending consumers to avoid the species caught by trap from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England and Georges Bank stocks.

The action prompted the four lobstermen to file the suit months later, seeking $75,000 in damages for disparagement of their aquaculture product and interference with their proprietary rights.

“After lengthy discussions among the named individuals in the suit, they agreed to dismiss the Class Action Suit as a win in the California court is highly unlikely and extremely costly,” the MLA said in a statement to the Herald on Tuesday. “The laws in California would ultimately hold these individuals financially responsible for the defendant’s legal fees should they prevail.”

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The aquarium had asserted that trapping lobsters had contributed to the depletion of the population of Northern Atlantic right whales, an endangered species at high risk of extinction. There are fewer than 340 such whales today, and the aquarium says entanglement in fishing gear is the leading cause of injury and death.

But Massachusetts lobstermen have argued they’re doing more than enough to protect the whales by following stringent conservation measures including a months-long fishing closure during the winter and early spring and the use of what they consider “weak ropes.”

The aquarium took exception to the suit, calling it “meritless” and one that sought “to curtail the First Amendment rights of a beloved institution that educates the public about the importance of a healthy ocean.”

Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch assessed U.S. and Canadian fisheries using trap and gillnet gear along the East Coast after the feds in 2017 declared an “unusual mortality event” due to a significant die-off of the North Atlantic right whale from fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes.

In a statement to the Herald, aquarium lead counsel Rebecca Kaufman celebrated the case’s dismissal.

“The dismissal is both a victory for the critically endangered right whale and for the free speech of those committed to protecting vulnerable species and preserving the ocean for future generations,” she said.

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association said it will continue to follow a defamation suit filed by its Maine counterparts against Monterey Bay, alleging the aquarium’s statements “have caused substantial economic harm to plaintiffs.”