by Beege Welborn at Hot Air
Back in 2021, the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), issued an opinion in pursuit of preserving the endangered right whale. As these edicts go, this “opinion” has basically force of law when it comes to imposing conservation-based measures, rules and restrictions.
The right whale, which has a population hovering at a tad less than 350 individuals, has been a focus of efforts for some years. The lobster industry, reviled by many environmentalists, became an easy target for a revised set of regulations when the Biden administration took over. And they hammered them.
…At the heart of the case is a set of much-debated regulations, including new gear-marking mandates, a reduction in the number of vertical lines in the water, the insertion of weak points in rope, and a seasonal closure of a nearly 1,000-square-mile area off the Gulf of Maine.
The rules – and the subsequent judgement upholding them in 2022 – were supposed to be “biology-based,” leading one to believe there was some sort of justified and verifiable science involved besides just antipathy to lobstermen in general, all aimed at destroying their industry.
It started to get a little squishy on the rationale details almost from the beginning:…
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