Progress on the Road to Ropeless Fishing Gear
Learn how transitioning to ropeless fishing gear offers an alternative that could recover right whales and preserve the livelihood of New England’s iconic lobstermen and women.

Learn how transitioning to ropeless fishing gear offers an alternative that could recover right whales and preserve the livelihood of New England’s iconic lobstermen and women.
An international climate conference in Glasgow just ended. It’s left me feeling frustrated and angry, but I know I can still find hope in local action.
“Reducing entanglements by prohibiting fishing in this area is critical to ensuring the survival of right whales,” said Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation. “This decision affirms that science matters. The First Circuit got it right: entanglements often can’t be traced, so where whales, lots of lines, and heavy fishing lines coincide, we need fishing restrictions now.”
A federal appeals court is reinstating restrictions on fishing gear in a nearly 1,000-square-mile swathe of ocean off Maine’s coast. It’s a blow to Maine’s lobstermen and a victory for advocates for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation, one of the environmental groups involved in the appeal, said the court’s “decision affirms that science matters.”
Our forests, open spaces, farms, and ocean can help us fight the climate crisis if we responsibly manage and conserve them. It’s time for Congress to invest in natural climate solutions now.
The House Oversight Committee recently held a hearing to interrogate Big Oil executives about their companies’ decades of deliberate climate disinformation. A disappointing yet unsurprising outcome tells us it’s time for more climate mandates for real accountability.
Thousands of hazardous waste sites and chemical facilities across New England are unprepared for the impacts of climate change. The failure of regulators to require such preparation leaves the health of our communities and our environment in jeopardy.
The preliminary injunction filed in federal court is part of a larger lawsuit the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Conservation Law Foundation, Maine Rivers and Natural Resources Council of Maine are pursuing against Brookfield Renewable for allegedly violating the federal Endangered Species Act.
Our communities and neighborhoods deserve to be safe – and we must urgently transition off dirty gas to protect them.