PORTSMOUTH — Local lobstermen are concerned a string of right whale deaths could lead to new regulations on their industry, their gear considered a threat to the marine mammals.

There were 17 North Atlantic right whale deaths in 2017 in Canada and the United States that drew the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leading NOAA to declare it an Unusual Mortality Event. Some of the whales died through entanglement with rope commonly used by lobstermen, and last fall NOAA announced it would consider new regulations to protect the whales, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Local lobstermen are now hoping they can come up with a proposal to submit to NOAA for changes to their gear before the federal agency closes off areas of the ocean they use to fish for lobster. More than a dozen of them met last Tuesday at the New Hampshire Port Authority to talk about modifying the rope they use so it breaks when a whale hits it. Their hope is NOAA will accept their proposal to switch their gear rather than enact closures and regulations that impact fisheries up and down the East Coast.

"A closure would break our back," said lobsterman Ward Byrne, who fishes out of Portsmouth. "NOAA could come down and hand a ruling down that's not good for fishermen, and we're done."

NOAA is expected to make a decision on new regulations by the end of this year, said Cheri Patterson, supervisor of marine programs at New Hampshire Fish and Game. She said Fish and Game represents New Hampshire lobstermen on the Large Atlantic Whale Take Reduction Team and will present Granite State lobstermen's preferred options. The team advises NOAA Fisheries, which Patterson said will make the final decision.

North Atlantic right whales have been listed as endangered since 1970, and today there are an estimated 411 remaining, according to a report from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. Other populations of right whale exist in the Pacific Ocean and Southern Hemisphere.

Commercial whaling brought the right whales in the North Atlantic to the brink of extinction in the 1890s. Today, fishing gear entanglement is considered by NOAA to be one of the leading causes of recorded right whale fatalities.

Lobstermen this past Tuesday brainstormed ways of altering the rope they use so it would break at 1,700 pounds, enough to potentially let a whale break the line rather than become entangled. Meeting that requirement might be doable, they said, but they brought up logistical problems like hesitation from rope manufacturers to invest in creating such a rope without an actual order in bulk being placed.

Lobstermen say they have struggled with NOAA regulations in the past, but not to the extent that those in other fisheries like commercial fishermen have. Fishermen say regulations from catch reduction to the cost of at-sea monitors that join captains on trips to sea have crippled their industry. Chris Adamaitis, one of the lobstermen at Tuesday's meeting, said new regulations to protect the whale industry could mean new trouble for their fishery.

"This would be the start of it," Adamaitis said. "If the lobster fishery had a chance of failing, I would say it would be due to the whale issue."